Indian-American awarded at White House for combating human trafficking
Houston, Oct 19: An Indian-American woman has been honoured with a Presidential award by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for her extraordinary contribution towards combatting human trafficking in Houston.
Minal Patel Davis, Special Advisor on Human Trafficking to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, received the 'Presidential Medal for Combating Human Trafficking' in the White House last week at a ceremony also attended by President Donald Trump.
"It was unbelievable," said Davis after winning the award, the country's highest honour in the field.
"My parents came here from India. I was the first one in my family born in the United States, so to end up in the Mayor's office a few years ago, and then to now end up in the White House, it was unbelievable," she said.
Appointed in July 2015, Davis has made a local impact on human trafficking in America's fourth largest city from a policy-level perspective and by helped in advancing systems change.
She is currently implementing Mayor Turner's Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Plan, which is the first comprehensive municipal response to human trafficking by a US city.
Davis has spoken at several local, national and international panels and presented Houston city's approach.
She is a past speaker at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit and recently travelled to India and Canada at the request of the State Department to discuss municipal leadership in trafficking with the government officials.
Davis did her MBA from the University of Connecticut and BA from New York University.
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Karnataka Assembly Speaker seeks probe after Aadhaar cards found on riverbank in Mangaluru
Mangaluru (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker U T Khader on Wednesday sought an inquiry after a large number of Aadhaar cards were found on the banks of the Nethravathi River here.
The cards were found at Farangipete in Pudu village of his Mangaluru Assembly constituency.
Khader, in a note to the Project Manager of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Bengaluru, sought immediate intervention and necessary action against those responsible.
In the note dated March 4, he said that local residents noticed the Aadhaar cards along the riverbank on March 3.
Following information received from the public, the Pudu Gram Panchayat president and villagers collected the Aadhaar cards found scattered in the area. They subsequently brought the matter to his attention and the concerned authorities, he said.
Expressing concern over the incident, the Speaker has directed that a thorough investigation be conducted to ascertain how such a large number of Aadhaar cards ended up on the riverbank and to identify those responsible.
He instructed officials to initiate appropriate legal action through the concerned department at the earliest.
