A family run business has received a prestigious business of the year award in a ceremony held last week.

Three Oldham-based brothers have been running The Raj Indian restaurant in Warrington for the past 22 years.  They offer Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. 

Anhar Miah, 46, owner of the restaurant was born in Bangladesh but has lived in Oldham since arriving here. He attended Grange secondary school. His brothers are Muktar and Sajad.

Anhar said: “We offer free meals to people during the lockdown. We serve 50 meals a day to vulnerable families.

“We were honoured to be nominated for the Lockdown Heroes 2021 award, which we won.  The award ceremony was held by the Warrington Guardian and was hosted by Dr Hilary Jones.

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“It means a lot to receive this award and to be recognised for our humanitarian work. Particularly my staff who have helped out selflessly in their free time.

“We have raised money for local and international causes including for Romanian orphans. We also helped out when the Rana Plaza disaster happened in Bangladesh when the factory collapsed about six years ago. We raised £16,000 and handed out aid ourselves for the cause and contributed to the building of 200 wells in Bangladesh.

“We didn’t even know that we were nominated by our customers showing the appreciation of the local community, which means a lot to us.

Anhar added: “We have been here 22 years and even during the pandemic our customers supported us.

A customer said about the restaurant owner: “He has a heart of gold. He always has a smile, greets everyone with genuine warmth and care.”