11th edition of Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 - Press Release - List of Awardees

11th edition of Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 - Awardees

Press Release

Sansad Ratna Awardees 2020 Announced

Performance Review of Parliamentarians Strengthens Democracy – Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal, MOS Parliamentary Affairs

New Delhi 24^th June 2020

Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, observed that recognition and performance review of Parliamentarians by the civil society helps strengthen democracy, during the presentation of the list of MPs nominated for the 11^th edition of the Sansad Ratna Awards 2020. When 'We the people' elect the Parliamentarians and legislators, they have the moral responsibility to monitor the performance of the elected representatives, said the Minister, who is the Chairman of the Jury Committee of Sansad Ratna Awards.  

Mr. N. K. Premachandran MP and Mr. Shrirang Appa Barne MP are the other Jury Members.  All the three Jury Members have been outstanding Parliamentarians and recipients of the Sansad Ratna Awards in the previous Lok Sabha. The Sansad Ratna Awards were instituted in 2010 by a Chennai-based NGO Prime Point Foundation, and the eMagazine PreSense, following the suggestions of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (former President of India) to honour the perfection-oriented Parliamentarians. He himself launched the first Awards function in May 2010.  The awardees are selected by a Jury Committee of eminent Parliamentarians, observing absolute transparency based on the performance parameters provided by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India.

Jury Committee Members L to R - Mr Shrirang Appa Barne, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, Mr N K Premachandran

According to Mr. K. Srinivasan, Chairman of the Prime Point Foundation and Sansad Ratna Awards Committee, the Jury Committee nominated three Parliamentarians for 'Sansad Maha Ratna Award' based on their sustained quality of performance in the 16th Lok Sabha. This is a prestigious award presented once in five years.

Eight Lok Sabha Members, two Rajya Sabha Members and one Departmentally Related Standing Committee will be receiving the Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 for their performance in the 17^th Lok Sabha.  The actual date for the awards’ presentation event will be notified after normalcy is restored in the country, after tackling the pandemic COVID-19.

  

Sansad Maha Ratna Awards

Mr. Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD, Cuttack, Odisha), Mrs. Supriya Sule (NCP, Baramati, Maharashtra) and Mr. Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena, Maval, Maharashtra) will be receiving the coveted 'Sansad Maha Ratna Award' for their sustained qualitative performance in the 16th Lok Sabha. This Award is presented once in five years.

Standing Committee

The Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Agriculture receives the Sansad Ratna Award 2020 as the best performing committee.  The Committee was selected based on the reports presented to Parliament, supported by the number of sittings.  Mr. P C Gaddigoudar (BJP, Bagalkot Karnataka) is the Chairman of the Committee.

  

Lok Sabha

Eight sitting Lok Sabha Members will be receiving the Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 under various categories, based on their performance during the first year of the 17th Lok Sabha.

Ms. Supriya Sule (NCP, Baramati, Maharashtra) gets the Sansad Ratna Award 2020 for her overall performance in Initiated Debates, Questions and Private Members Bills in the first year of the 17th Lok Sabha. 

Dr. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre (BJP, Dhule, Maharashtra), Dr. Heena Gavit (BJP, Nandurbar, Maharashtra) and Dr. Amol Ramsing Kolhe, (NCP, Shirur, Maharashtra) will be receiving the Sansad Ratna Award 2020 for Questions, Women and First-time MPs categories respectively. 

Dr. Shashi Tharoor (INC, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), Dr. Nishikant Dubey (BJP, Godda, Jharkhand), Mr.  Ajay Misra (BJP, Kheri, Uttar Pradesh) and Mr. Ram Mohan Naidu (TDP, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh) have been nominated for the ‘Jury Committee Special Award’ for their overall qualitative performance and individual efforts. 

Rajya Sabha

Mr. Vishambhar Prasad Nishad (Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh) and Ms. Chhaya Verma (INC, Chhattisgarh) have been nominated for their overall performance in Rajya Sabha during the first year coinciding with Lok Sabha.  This category of honouring the sitting MPs of Rajya Sabha has been introduced this year.

Commendations

Ms. Supriya Sule, accepting the honour of Sansad Maha Ratna said, “I am humbled to be nominated for the Sansad Maha Ratna award this year. This award symbolises the immense responsibility bestowed upon me and the people's expectations I am to fulfil in coming years. I pledge to continue to work for the betterment of all our people.”

As the Chairperson of the Agriculture Committee, Mr P C Gaddigoudar said, “I am happy and delighted to receive this honourable award initiated by our Late President Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam. I am very thankful to all the committee members for actively participating in all meetings and providing valuable inputs and suggestions at the appropriate time to achieve this feat. 

On behalf of the Agriculture Committee Members and stakeholders, we are elated to receive this prestigious Sansad Ratna Award”.

Mr Bhartruhari Mahtab, accepting the honour of Sansad Maha Ratna Award said, “Recognising the performance of the Members of Parliament by the Civil Society is highly commendable in this time when cynicism is ruling the roost in political life and there is all round pessimism relating to politics.  The Sansad Maha Ratna Award is a unique endeavour, not only recognising the genuine work of Members of Parliament but also to attract the youths of this age towards public life.  This also encourages MPs to work for the people of this country. This definitely gives a boost and also reminds us that there are some in this society who are taking note of our actions inside the Parliament. I feel humbled on being conferred the Sansad Maha Ratna, which is presented once in five years, and also thank Prime Point Foundation and the Sansad Ratna Award Committee who have taken into account the performance”.

End

Media contact:

Press Release issued by Mr K. Srinivasan, Chairman, Prime Point Foundation and Chairman, Sansad Ratna Awards Committee Mobile: 9176650273

Mr Bhawanesh Deora, President, Sansad Ratna Awards Committee (Mobile: 9385363537) 

www.sansadratna.in | sansadratna@gmail.com

Read More

Jury Committee Meeting for nominating awardees for Sansad Ratna Award 2020

Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 - Jury Committee Meeting through Zoom

The Second Jury  Committee Meeting of Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 for 17th Lok Sabha was held on 10th June 2020 through Zoom.  Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon'ble MOS Parliamentary Affairs and Chairman of Jury Committee chaired the meeting.  Shri N K Premachandran MP and Shri Shrirang Appa Barne MP, the Jury Committee Members were also present.

The Jury Committee considered the performance of the MPs based on the data provided by PRS India and Lok Sabha site and nominated the Members for Sansad Ratna Awards 2020.  The Awards Committee will be individually writing to them for acceptance of their nomination. 

Originally, 11th edition of Sansad Ratna Awards function 2020 was scheduled to be held at Constitution Club, Delhi on 29th July 2020.  Due to lockdown and uncertainty, the committee has cancelled the event.  Award function will be held later based on the situation.

Meanwhile, Sansad Ratna Awards Committee will announce the names of the Awardees (after they accept the nomination) on 24th June 2020 through a Press Release.

Awards will be presented to top performers of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and also the Standing Committees. 

Read More

Performance of Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) in the 17th Lok Sabha upto Budget Session 2020

The concept of Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) was introduced in 1989 to help the Parliament to study the matters closely.  Presently, 24 DRSCs function (16 Lok Sabha Committees and 8 Rajya Sabha Committees).  Each Committee has 30 Members (20 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha), nominated by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. It is chaired either by a Lok Sabha or a Rajya Sabha Member, depending on the category of the Committee.

Generally, the Committees take up any topic relating to their Ministry, discuss and present their reports to the Parliament.  They also scrutinise Bills referred to them and ‘Demands for Grant’ of the Ministries concerned.  All their reports are presented to the Parliament.

The performance of the top 3 Committees (From 1.6.2019 to 31.3.2020) is as follows:

Lok Sabha Committees		Rajya Sabha Committees
Committee	Reports presented	Committee	Reports presented
Agriculture	13	Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change	8
Information and Technology	12	Transport, Tourism and Culture	8
Finance	11	Human Resources Department	6

Data source: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites

People are generally aware about the functioning of the Parliament.  But they seldom know about the functioning of the Standing Committees.  The Standing Committees are the real Unsung Heroes.  Every year, PreSense honours the best Standing Committee with the Sansad Ratna Award.  In the 16^th Lok Sabha, the Finance Committee received the Award for presenting the maximum number of reports.  The Finance Committee was chaired by  Dr Veerappa Moily, a Congress Party leader.

The Committee Meetings are not open to the media.  Political parties too cannot issue whip to their Members in the Standing Committees to adopt a particular line.

Read More