GUNTUR : A Telugu man named Panda Shivalinga Prasad has become the Minister of Infrastructure in the State of Alberta in Canada. After winning the general election last April at Canada, he was sworn in as the MLA for second time. Prasad who originally hailed from Guntur district, said that his first priority was to make Alberta free from debt.

Shivalinga Prasad son of Lakshminarasamma and Venkata Subbaiah belongs to Sangam Jagarlamudi village of Tenali Mandal in Guntur district. Prasad has three sisters and one brother. He completed Mechanical Engineering in VRS Engineering College from Vijayawada.

Later Prasad worked in Hyderabad Allwyn's Andhra Pradesh Scooters Limited for a year, and after that from 1988 he started working in Reliance Industries in Mumbai and worked there for 16 years.

He took key responsibilities in the construction of the world's third-largest producer of oil reserves Jamnagar oil refinery, and after that state of Alberta, Canada recognised his talent and gave him an opportunity to work Suncor Energy Inc at Alberta.

Prasad gained interest in state politics after working there for 11 years. He joined the Opposition Wild Rose Party and contributed a lot to the development of the party.

After that, he contested in the Calgary by-election from opposition party and won. Even though he was in the opposition, he worked as a shadow minister for Economic Development and Trade.

After winning the general election on April 16, 2019 from Calgary-Edmonton, he took over the responsibilities as Minister of Infrastructure.

Around 75 percent of the population in that constituency are Americans and 16 percent are Chinese while Indians constitute only two per cent.

Prasad who gave a personal interview to Sakshi when had recently returned to his homeland, said that locals had accepted him as their leader as he has long experience as an oil and gas expert.

He even praised the people in Alberta that they always choose a right leader and do not see the race, religion and other differences while choosing their leader. Rather they look at the history and competencies of the candidates for selecting them, he said.

Signing off Prasad said that they are looking forward in reducing debt and balancing the budget of the Alberta.

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