Lisa Madigan (center) with South Asian community members
NAPERVILLE: Members of Indian American community in Naperville led by Sreenivas Katragadda and Sainath Reddivar met and greeted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as part of Gandhi Jayanti Celebrations in this south west Chicago suburb. The event took place at India Harvest Restaurant in Naperville.
During her short and busy visit, Madigan addressed the community and spoke about social, economic and political issues. Briefly dwelling on her vision of introducing various reforms in the State and highlighting the importance of democratic traditions, she observed that “the importance of Gandhi’s efforts for democracy were obvious when I volunteered as a high school teacher in South Africa during the apartheid period.”
She touched upon other challenges that community faces such as protection from sex offenders and online predators, consumer protection, protecting taxpayers, making healthcare more affordable and creating employment. She concluded by urging the community to get registered and vote for the right candidate.
Attended by over 50 prominent community members, the day started with social hour and was followed by ‘meet and greet Madigan’. Outstanding members of the community present included Varghese Palamalayil, president, Midwest Malayalee Association of America, Anil Deshpande, president, Vidyaranya Kannada Kuta, Dr. Nagabhushanam Koneru, president, Sri Sai Samsthan of USA, Prem Sharma, co-founder of Apna Ghar, Raj Surti, vice-president of Alcatel-Lucent in Naperville, Ashwin Janakiram, president of Network of Indian Professionals, Chicago chapter and president-elect of Indian American Bar Association, Jagadish Kanuru, president of Tristate Telugu Association and Velu Palani, CEO of DB Professionals.
Other important attendees were the Mayor of Naperville George Pradel, Corinne Pierog and Democratic Candidate for Illinois State Senate District 28.
Sreenivas Katragadda welcomed the attendees. Introducing Madigan to Indian community, Reddivari said, “Madigan needs no introduction. She has been a steadfast friend and supporter of Indian community since her days as Illinois Senator in the late 90s.”
The event concluded with vote of thanks by Srilaya Kudaravalli, MS in Clinical Psychology in Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
Mohammaed Ghouse
