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Indian American short-listed for US honour
Indian American Ranjeet Singh, a career State Department official, is among 28 finalists for the 2004 Service to America Medal for her work against narcotics trafficking in Afghanistan. The eight awardees will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony in Washington on September 28.
Indian American Ranjeet Singh, a career State Department official, is among 28 finalists for the 2004 Service to America Medal for her work against narcotics trafficking in Afghanistan.
The eight awardees will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony in Washington on September 28.
W Robert Pearson, who heads the State Department's Bureau of Human Resources, on Monday commended Singh and Ambassador Prudence Bushnell, the two State Department officials among the 28 chosen to the final round.
The Service to America Medal is a national awards programme to honour the achievements of federal employees.
Bushnell has been selected for the Career Achievement Award and Ranjeet Singh for the Call to Service Medal.
"The nominations are not only a tribute to them, but also to all other Department of State employees worldwide, who work tirelessly to create a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people," said the department in a release.
"Ranjeet Singh is leading the Department of State's efforts to crack down on opium poppy cultivation and narcotics trafficking. Addressing this growing problem is critical to the long-term stability of Afghanistan's new government," said the department.
She has developed expertise on Afghanistan's ethnic groups, geography and economy, which has made her the department's "leading expert" in formulating US policy to deal with opium poppy cultivation and narcotics trafficking in that country, says the Partnership for Public Service, an non-partisan, non-profit organisation that works to identify top-notch Americans for public service.
For the past decade, opium poppy has been Afghanistan's largest and most valuable cash crop.
Since Operation Enduring Freedom toppled the Taliban in 2002, Afghanistan has re-emerged as the world's leading supplier of illicit opium, morphine and heroin, producing an estimated 75 per cent of the worldwide supply of heroin, according to the State Department.
"As the United States planned its reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, Singh pushed strongly for a strong response to the problem of opium poppy production," says the Partnership, crediting Singh with developing a law enforcement-cum-diplomatic response to deal with the issue.
"Since September 2001, Singh has worked with US government agencies, non-government organisations, the United Nations and the United Kingdom to develop and implement millions of dollars of assistance programs in the areas of narcotics law enforcement, alternative development, drug demand reduction and anti-drug public affairs.
"These programs have aimed to help Afghan farmers grow and market alternative crops, win public support for a ban on opium poppy cultivation, and to open a treatment centre for addicts," says the Partnership.
