Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Led by Veerappa Moily is honoured for outstanding performance
By TN Ashok / Chennai
Five MPs from Maharashtra and one from Orissa belonging to different parties today won the best parliamentary performance award from a civil society organisation and an NGO Prime Point Foundation even as former Karnataka CM and veteran Congressman Dr M Veerappa Moily, Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance won a special award for heading the parliamentary standing committee on finance in the 16th lok sabha which concluded recently.
The sansad Ratna Awards 2018’, instituted nine years ago by a Chennai based NGO which also runs an eMagazine PreSense, has been giving these awards based on inputs received by parliament and the PRSI. The awards were instituted at the instance or suggestion of the late president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as civil society recognition for MPs outstanding performance in the Parliament.
The Six MPs from Lok Sabha received their award a citation and shawl at the hands of the former West Bengal Governor and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and former Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy at a function held with the collaboration of IIT Madras . The MPs , who received the awards were : Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab (Party: Biju Janata Dal; Constituency: Cuttack, Odisha), Smt. Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party, Baramati, Maharashtra), Shri Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena, Mavel, Maharashtra), Rajeev Shankarrao Satav (Indian National Congress, Hingoli, Maharashtra) and Dhananjay Bhimrao Mahadik (Nationalist Congress Party, Kolhapur, Maharashtra) under different categories.
The selection of individual awardees is based on the performance parameters like initiated debates, private members’ bills, questions raised and the attendance in the House.
The data is provided by Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India. Dr Heena Vijayakumar Gavit (Bharatiya Janata Party, Nandurbar, Maharaashtra) won the award under the Women MP category.
For the first time from this year , one ‘Departmentally Related Standing Committee’ of Parliament is being honoured based on criteria like the reports presented, the number of sittings held and the number of subjects selected, and others.
Since 2015, Prime Point Foundation and PreSense have been honouring the outstanding Rajya Sabha Members, who had retired in the previous year, after completing the full six-year term. Shri Shantharam Laxman Naik (Indian National Congress, Goa) was nominated for this years’ Award under Rajya Sabha category. He retired from Rajya Sabha in 2017.
A Jury Committee headed by Shri Anandrao Adsul (fifth time MP), along with Shri Hansraj G Ahir (Minister of State – Home and fourth time MP) and Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal (Minister of State – Parliamentary Affairs and second time MP) selected the award winners.
The Jury committee members, who were outstanding Parliamentarians themselves in terms of their performance in the Parliament, were honoured with the ‘Sansad Maha Ratna’ Awards for their sustained performance in the 15th Lok Sabha.
While Prime Point Foundation chairman and founder K Srinivasan recalled the history of how the sansadratna journey began, the executive president Bhavnesh Deora listed the achievements of the award winners. The Director of IIT Madras Bhaskar and Head of Humanities Dr Sudarsan also spoke on the occasion.
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The Sansad Ratna Awards was instituted by Prime Point Foundation and its eMagazine PreSense to honour top performing Parliamentarians on various parameters every year after the Budget Session. This Award was instituted as suggested by Dr Abdul Kalam, to honour achievers. During the first Award function in May 2010, Dr Kalam himself addressed the audience from Delhi through a teleconference. Incidentally, he devoted an entire chapter on the Sansad Ratna Awards in his last book, ‘Ä Manifesto for Change’.
The selection process is transparently done, based on the data provided by Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India.