Another 70 senior citizens return money

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GEORGE TOWN: Another 70 senior citizens from Bayan Baru here have decided to give back the RM100 reward which they received from the state government as they feared that the money could have come from gaming activities.

Habsah Said, 81, from Permatang Damar Laut, said she was very disappointed and shocked to discover that the money for the state’s ‘Senior Citizen Appreciation Programme’ was obtained from the racing activities of Penang Turf Club.

“For Muslims, we are not allowed to receive money from forbidden sources and it is considered as ‘duit haram’, which all of us have decided to return,” she said at a press conference call by Bayan Baru Umno division chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Saibu here yesterday.

She said she had accepted the money earlier because she thought it was ‘halal’ (permitted by Islam).

Another senior citizen Zainab Abu Bakar, 67, from Kampung Melayu, said she decide to return the money voluntarily back to the state government for the same reasons.

Earlier, some 50 senior citizen had opted to give the money to Umno Bayan Baru before it was returned to the state government while another 20 of them turned up later to do so the same. — Bernama