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11 women civic body workers in Kerala win ₹10-cr bumper lottery
This is the fourth time the group bought the bumper lottery ticket, previously having won ₹1000 in Onam bumper.
Eleven women municipality workers in Kerala have jointly bagged the ₹10 crore jackpot of the state government’s 2023 Monsoon Bumper lottery, people familiar with the matter said.
The 11 women are members of the Haritha Karma Sena, a green force of the state Kudumbashree Mission engaged in doorstep collection of all kinds of non-biodegradable waste and its segregation before its processing.
The winners, associated with the Parappanangadi municipality in Malappuram district, had jointly bought the ₹250 ticket as they didn’t have money to buy on their own. The winning ticket of the BR-92 lucky draw was MB200261. The lottery also has multiple prizes of ₹10 lakh, ₹5 lakh, ₹3 lakh, ₹1 lakh etc. The winning ticket was submitted at the Punjab National Bank branch in Parappanangadi and the amount will be deposited in one of the winner’s accounts after deducting income tax and agent commission.
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Radha, 49, who had suggested to buy the lottery ticket and picked out the winning ticket from the agent, said, “I am still in shock. It’s unbelievable. We had to check with multiple people to make sure that we won and still we couldn’t believe it.” “We all come from very poor families with lots of debt and liabilities. I myself have a debt of ₹3 lakh which I hope to clear with the amount I get from the lottery. So, it has reached us at the right time,” she added.
This is the fourth time the group bought the bumper lottery ticket, previously having won ₹1000 in Onam bumper.
Sheeja Ganesh, the coordinator of the 57-member Haritha Karma Sena, said, “It’s very surprising but I am very happy for them. These are extremely hard-working people who go to great lengths to make ends meet. Of the 11 people, three collect the waste from households while the rest are engaged in segregating and weighing the waste. They earn between ₹8000 to ₹14000 a month.”
