CHICAGO: Nimish Jani, Candidate for a second term as a Trustee, Township of Schaumburg is pepped up with huge community support and is facing confidently the scheduled election on April 4.
He is through his first four-year-term as a Trustee, Township of Schaumburg, Illinois, and he is “not taking anything for granted.” He is focused on a specific agenda in aid of the residents of this thriving township.
“For me the upcoming elections are like a wholly new challenge. One has to work as if one is doing it for the first time. I owe it to the residents of this vibrant, multicultural township,” Jani says.
A Republican, he is a strong proponent of grassroots level involvement by the Indian Americans and all other ethnic communities. He believes America’s democracy offers everybody a fair chance, from the village-township level right up to the U.S. Congress and Senate.
A resident of Schaumburg Township for the past 28 years, Jani is intimately familiar with local issues and what it might take to address them. With a population of about 140,000, residents of Indian origin constitute about 18 percent of the population or about 25,000 who represent all the well-known high performance demographic indicators in terms of education, median income and overall professional and entrepreneurial success. Of this population only about 4200 have registered to vote.
One of Jani’s passionate advocacies has been to encourage Indian Americans and other South Asian Americans in Schaumburg to get involved in local government, institutions and boards. “It is my cherished goal to see that each of the township’s agencies has at least one member of our Indian American and South Asian American community working. It is a pity that as a community, we fall woefully short when it comes to getting involved in the affairs of the township,”Jani says.
He specifically points out that while members of the U.S. Congress and Senate are important, “for our daily lives and the overall standards of living, it is at the level of the township and village that we need to pay much more attention.”
One of his favorite examples is to bring to the notice of his constituents that the annual property tax that the residents pay includes over a dozen other levies that people do not even realize are included as well.
Those levies pay for services that frequently go unused. More often than not, since the Indian American community stays away from local involvement, their cultural needs in terms of local services remain unaddressed.
“The importance of having representations on all township boards and bodies as well as employees lies in being able to help craft policies that help our community. Without that level of involvement and commitment our case will go by default,” he says.
He cites specific examples such as how in the event of inaccuracies in the school curriculum about subjects related to India and South Asia can creep in and remain uncorrected if there is no one forcefully representing the community’s demographic interests. “Remember, all policies are made according to the demographics,” he says.
Other than the signature promise of a balanced budget, lower taxes and efficient services, Mr. Jani says he wants focus on community-specific services of particular interest to the Indian Americans. Language barrier often makes availing townships services difficult for a large number of elderly Indian Americans who may not speak English. He wants to address that. A health issue unique to the South Asian community is one of a high incidence of heart diseases. It is a well-known fact in the world of medicine that there is a certain genetic predisposition among South Asians towards heart ailments.
TRUSTEE CANDIDATES
The Republican team for trustee candidates that Mr. Jani is a member of consists of Diane Dunham, W. Robert Vinnedge and Jeffery S. Mytych.
VOTING
The in-person voting is scheduled for April 4 but early voting has already commenced as of March 20 through April 3 at the Trickster Art Gallery, 190 S. Roselle Road in Schaumburg or the Hoffman Estate Village Hall, 1900 Hassell Road in Hoffman Estate on Monday through Saturday between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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