Awards from Indian government for contribution

NLFCS or National Land Finance Cooperative Society executive chairman Tan Sri K.S. Somasundaram was among the 15 who received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award from the Indian government, recently. 

He is the second Malaysian to receive the prestigious award from Indian President Abdul Kalam.  

Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu who is also the MIC President was the first to receive the award in 2003. 

Somasundaram was honoured for his contributions including service in the Indian National Army from 1944 to 1945 and in the Malaysian Indian Congress from 1947 to 1960. 

He has served as a senator in the Malaysian parliament and devoted much of his life ensuring the well-being of the plantation workers through the NLFCS. 

Two other Malaysians received the Bharat Samman Pravasi award by the Non Resident Indians Institute in a separate function in New Delhi recently after the fifth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conclave.  

Dr Ananda Murthy and Dr Leela Rama were selected as they have excelled in their country of origin as well as for their contributions. 

The institute is in existence for 38 years. This is the first time two Malaysian doctors received the awards. 

Dr Ananda, 41, was a volunteer medical officer with Life Help Organisation Centre for the Handicapped in relief of tsunami victims in east coast of India in 2005 and had provided medical help to between 7,000 and 8,000 victims a day for two weeks. 

In the second quarter of 2005, Dr Ananda personally arranged for four medical practitioners from Malaysia to be at the south coast of India to assist tsunami victims through the Life Help Organisation Centre. 

He is also involved in various charity works in Malaysia, organising blood donation drive with St John’s Ambulance as well as visits to orphanages, providing medical care. 

Dr Leela who graduated from Coimbatore Medical College, University of Madras had helped conduct free eye camps in rural areas in South India and sponsored cataract operation with the help of Rotary Club of Andhra Pradesh.  

She was in MIC and later became its national deputy women leader in 1994 and was the first woman to be elected to Parliament in 1995. 

Dr Leela has been actively involved in many organisations and held various executive positions. 

She is a member of Tengku Budriah Home Kuala Lumpur’s Board of Governors, The KL City Women’s Corp, and Trustee of Hindu Temples. 

In 2004, she worked as a volunteer medical officer under the umbrella of Life Help Group in the South Indian coast after the tsunami.