Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 18 (IANS): A 52-year-old Congress leader M.A. Latheef is a no frills personality and is popular among the poorest of the poor in the capital city suburbs.

He has been with them whenever times are bad and by now has distributed over 2000 kits of rice since the beginning of this month.

An executive committee member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Latheef has been working amongst the fishermen and the SC/ST members in and around Kazhakootam, from where he hails, ever since Covid-19 struck.

On Saturday, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy through video conferencing, inaugurated the day's distribution of the kit.

"We maintain social distancing and we (three of us) go to the homes of these people and distribute the kit which consists of 4 to 5 kilogram of rice. We first identify the families and give them a token and tell them to be at their homes. The next day we go and give the kit," said Latheef, who has a few volunteers for distribution.

"The entire money for sourcing rice comes from my friends and well wishers. As a policy, we rarely collect money, instead, tell them to pay it to the rice dealer. We then go and collect the rice bags. Then we pack it in packets of 4 and 5 kilograms. It's then handed over to the people. By now we have distributed over 2000 kits," said Latheef.

He says the next area which he has identified is where around 500 families are there and is now waiting to make arrangements for supplying there, but the source of funds is yet to come.

"I am confident, people will come to help the poorest of the poor," said the unassuming Congress leader who has been a friend of the poor since his student days.

--IANS

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