The new year saw a local American-Indian from the township of Franklin, in Somerset County, Central New Jersey, make it to the political table for the third time. Rajiv Prasad was sworn in as Councilman-at-large for a third election term by Senator Cory Booker.

The Councilman promises to work on a variety of agendas for his upcoming term. He has pledged to work towards promoting unity, harmony and understanding between the various diverse ethnic groups, through the Inter-Faith Groups and various other local community events. In the past he has worked hard for the inclusion of a cricket pitch in an upcoming park, and has also lent his efforts to a temple being built in the area.

â€œPublic Service is a joy and it gives immense satisfaction to give back to the community that I have lived in for more than three decades. There is great satisfaction in serving the residents,â€ said Prasad. He has served as the deputy mayor, and he returns to the council for a four year term with several ideas. One of them is to consolidate shared services to cut spending.

â€œThe township has over 65,000 residents and close to 20 per cent of them are Asian, mostly of South Asian origin, and I am the only one serving their interests in town. We have to get more Indians involved in Public Service. Many do not even register to vote, because they erroneously think that they will get called for Jury Duty, something they want to avoid and call it â€œJuthi Duty,â€ he says.

Four residents of Franklin had died in the World Trade Center, of which one was Indian. For the tenth anniversary of 9/11, he put up a plaque in the Town Hall Lobby in their memory. â€œWe applied to the Governor and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to get a beam from the World Trade Center for a Memorial to them, which we achieved,â€ he says proudly.

The major issues in Franklin are youth gang violence that has to be channeled with youth activities to keep them productively occupied, he said. â€œWe have set up youth after school drop in centers and are working on setting up a Youth Activity Center. The other major issue is the economy and controlling taxes and we have managed those very well compared to other towns.â€

Prasad has a family tradition of public service. His nephew Jitin Prasad was a Union Minister of State for Highway Construction in India. His cousin the Late Jitendra Prasad was the vice president of the Congress Party. He spent his professional career in healthcare marketing, management and sales with multi-national companies including Bristol Myers, Bausch & Lomb Soflens and Johnson & Johnson. He also taught Marketing and Management courses at Rutgers University.

Rajiv Prasad sworn in as councilman in Franklin, NJ, for third term