Rep. Tom Suozzi awards Congressional recognition to Varinder Bhalla for Community Service

August 14, 2024

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Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-NY, right, with Varinder Bhall and Ratna Bhalla, holding up the citation of Congressional recognition presented to Bhalla. PHOTO: Courtesy Varinder Bhalla

Representative Tom Suozzi, D-NY, awarded Varinder Bhalla a Special Congressional Award, acknowledging his four decades of service to communities in US and India. The Honor includes an American flag that has flown over the U.S. Capitol, along with a formal Citation from Congressman Suozzi, an August 13, 2-24, press release from Bhalla said.

Bhalla’s journey as a community leader began in 1981 when, as Vice President of the Association of Indians in America (AIA), he campaigned for the inclusion of Indian Americans as a minority group eligible for federal contracts. He also lobbied on issues like family reunification.

Children being served mid-day meals at Delhi’s AWB Food Bank set up by Varinder Bhalla.

In India, he set up the AWB Food Bank in 1991, to serve mid-day meals to children. It has distributed 15 million meals since its inception, a press release from Bhalla said. He also set up eye camps in Punjab, organized a voter registration drive in US, as well as raised money for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster at the Union Carbide plant in India. He and his wife Ratna donated a boat for school children in Gujarat who previously risked their lives daily by swimming across a turbulent river to reach their school.

Motor boat donated by Varinder and Ratna Bhalla for schoolkids in a Gujarat village, to reach their school daily.

Dr. Thomas Abraham, founder & chairman of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), described Bhalla as “a great volunteer, organizer, and leader coordinating many aspects of community mobilization for common causes, in the USA as well as in India. It is very appropriate and befitting to recognize him with Special Congressional Recognition.”

Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori, the world-renowned cancer physician who treated the former President of India, praised Bhalla for his charitable endeavors in India and his community service in the United States, calling the latest Congressional recognition “well-deserved.”