SAN FRANCISCO: Mayor Art Agnos July 12 signed into law an amendment adding Asian Indians to the list of minority groups covered by the city’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) law.
The MBE law requires city departments and agencies to make special efforts to award contracts for goods and services to business owned by minority’s women and local residents.
“Today we are restoring Asian Indians to their rightful status as a minority community and as full partners in the life of this city” Mayor Agnos said at a bill-signing ceremony in his office this afternoon.
The mayor noted that Asian Indians had originally been covered under the 1984 MBE law but were excluded when some provisions of the law were re-written to comply with a 1989 U.S Supreme Court decision.
The term Asian Indians refers to people from India Pakistan Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. According to the latest U.S. Census there are approximately 3000 Asian Indians residing in San Francisco and more than 50000 in the Bay Area.
S Darishan Singh commissioner of the parking authority of San Francisco is the architect of this law amendment which will benefit Indian immensely.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
