Hyderabad landlord waives off rent for 75 tenants

A house owner in Hyderabad has waived off rents of his 75 tenants during the lockdown. The 41-year-old man who owns three buildings in the city has told his tenants that they need not pay him rent for April. “I know what it is to go hungry. I have had my own struggles in life. I do not want any of these families to suffer during this crunch time,” says Koduri Balalingam, who lives in Balanagar. His buildings have one-bedroom houses which are rented to industrial workers, mostly from Bihar. The total rent he has waived off came to Rs 3.4 lakh. “If the lockdown continues and they have no means of earning, I will think of waiving rent for the next month as well,” he told In addition to waiving off the rents, he has also distributed Rs 2.5 lakh among 250 poor families both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.