Heroes of 15th Lok Sabha to be honoured at Chennai on 22nd February 2014 at Chennai Press Club

Sansad Ratna Team is pleased to announce the 'Sansad Ratna 2014' Awards for top performing Lok Sabha Members to be presented on Saturday the 22nd February 2014 at Chennai Press Club in the presence of media. (updated on 9th Feb 2014). 

This year's theme is "CELEBRATE DEMOCRACY"

Shri N Gopalswami, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India has kindly consented to be the Chief Guest and present the Awards. 

Generally, voters do not have proper awareness about the duties of Parliamentarians.  They expect the Parliamentarians to get employment or transfer for their relatives; involve themselves in the local duties like panchayat presidents.  As per the founders of Indian constitution, the Parliament members have to make laws, supervise the government functions, discuss the budget and take up the problems of voters.  All the Parliament members are expected to participate in debates, introduce private members bills, raise questions and to attend the House regularly.   

In the earlier years, the awards were presented to the toppers under (a) debates (b) private members bills and  (c) questions. The purpose of honouring the top performers is to create awareness about the functioning of the Parliament among the people and to encourage the performers to do much better.  

15th Lok Sabha started functioning on 1st June 2009 and the regular business started on 4th June 2009.  Till 18th Dec 2013, this Lok Sabha conducted 15 Sessions with 345 sittings. Though the correct data is yet to be released, it is estimated that nearly 33% of the Lok Sabha was lost due to disruptions and forced adjournments.  

The team has decided to honour all the Lok Sabha Members with a total tally of 1000 and above (Debates +private bills + Questions) during the 5 years period.  As per the data released by PRS India  up to 18th December 2013 covering the entire 15th Lok Sabha, the following 9 Members become eligible for 'Sansad Ratna 2014' Awards. 

9 MPs who are getting Sansad Ratna Awards for the overall performance in the 15th Lok Sabha. 

Sansad Ratna Awardees

5 years in a row

Mr Anandrao Adsul, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra

(He raised 1216 questions and secures the No 1 position.  Also, his total tally is 1254 in the 15th Lok Sabha and also secures No 1 position for overall category.   His attendance is 75%.  Even in the earlier 14th Lok Sabha, he raised 1255 questions and secured No 1 position.  His total tally in 14th Lok Sabha was 1290 and he secured No 1 position for the overall tally.)

Mr Hansraj G Ahir, BJP MP from Maharashtra

(By introducing 31 Private Members Bills in the 15th Lok Sabha, he maintains the No 1 position from the beginning in this category.   His total tally is 1111 and attendance is 72%)

Mr S S Ramasubbu, Congress MP from Tamil Nadu

(His total tally is 1186 with 97% attendance and secures No 2 position for the overall category.  He continues to maintain No 1 position among Tamil Nadu MPs since the beginning)

3 years in a row

Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP MP from Rajasthan

(He has participated in 419 debates.  He continues to maintain the No 1 position under the Debate category.  His total tally is 1147 with 99% attendance)

2 years in a row

Mr Gajanan Dharmshi Babar, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra

(His total tally is 1150 with 73% attendance.  He secures No 3 position in the overall tally in the 15th Lok Sabha)

MPs included in the current list

Mr Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM MP from Andhra Pradesh

(His total tally is 1121 with 70% attendance)

Mr Pradeep Kumar Majhi, Congress MP from Orissa

(His total tally is 1070 with 55% attendance.  Though, he qualifies under youth category also, he is included in the overall category)

Mr Shivaji Adhalrao Patil, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra

(His total tally is 1044 with 43% attendance. )

Mr Eknath Mahadeo Gaikwad, Congress MP from Mahrashtra

(His total tally is 1003 with 98% attendance)

Sansad Mahila Ratna Awardees

From 2013, toppers among the Women MPs are also selected for 'Sansad Mahila Ratna' Award.  The following 3 MPs have become eligible for the 'Sansad Mahila Ratna Award 2014' for their overall performance in the 15th Lok Sabha.  The selection was done based on the total tally of debates, private members bills and questions.  

2 years in a row

Ms Supriya Sule, National Congress MP from Maharashtra

(Her total tally is 771 with 86% attendance)

Ms Ratna Singh, Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh

(Her total tally is 689 with 86% attendance)

Ms Rama Devi, BJP MP from Bihar

(Her total tally is 687 with 88% attendance)

Sansad Yuva Ratna Awardee

In 2013, we introduced Sansad Yuva Ratna Award for the young MPs. This time, it was decided to honour one Lok Sabha MP under the age of 40 for the overall performance based on the total tally.  Mr Pradeep Kumar  Majhi (Congress MP from Orissa) has become eligible under this category.  Since he has scored more than 1000 points, he is included under the Sansad Ratna category.

(Parliament data source PRS India)

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Performance of MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha till the end of Monsoon Session 2013

14th Session of 15th Lok Sabha

The Fourteenth Session of the current 15th Lok Sabha (Monsoon Session) was held between 5th August 2013 to 6th September 2013 with 21 sittings.  15th Lok Sabha commenced the business on 4th June 2009 and has till now has held 14 sessions with 335 sittings.  

Total performance of 15th Lok Sabha

Till the end of Monsoon Session 2013, Lok Sabha has worked effectively and transacted business for 1321 hours and 34 minutes.  799 hours 38 minutes was lost in disruptions and forced adjournments.  In view of the adjournments, the Lok Sabha worked for 273 hours and 12 minutes extra, beyond the scheduled time, to compensate the loss of time.  Nearly 43% of Lok Sabha time was lost due to disruptions in the current 15th Lok Sabha (all 14 sessions) and a portion of lost time was compensated with extra sitting.

Business transacted during the 15th Lok Sabha

202 bills were introduced in the 15th Lok Sabha so far and 171 bills have been passed.

3741 matters have been taken up by the Members of Lok Sabha under Rule 377 (matters of urgent public importance).  3208 matters of urgent public importance have been taken up during Zero Hour.

683 Standing Committee reports were submitted to Lok Sabha.

Duties of Parliament Members

The Members of Parliament are required to participate in the debates, raise matters of public interest, ask questions of public importance, introduce private members bills and to participate in the sessions (attendance).  We can adjudge the performance of the MPs, based on their performance in the House.  Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India provide the complete data relating to individual MPs.  

Top performing MPs in participation of debates

The following MPs secure the top 3 positions for participation in debates, as per the data released by PRS India.  (from the 1st session till the end of monsoon session 2013 of the current 15th Lok Sabha).

1. Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP MP from Rajasthan) - 414 times participated in debates.

2.  Mr Shailendrakumar (SP MP from UP) - 338 debates

3.  Mr PL Punja (Congress MP from UP) - 263 debates.

Of 17351 debates recorded in all the sessions, top 100 MPs have participated in 10011 debates (58%).

Top performing MPs for introducing Private Members Bills

In the current Lok Sabha, so far 372 Private Members Bills have been introduced.  Private Members Bills is an important  provision given in the Lok Sabha rules, to enable the members to share valuable bills, beyond party line.  If the bills are worthy, the Government itself will work on that and introduce as a Government Bill.  The recent Land Acquisition bill is the outcome of a private bill introduced by Mr Hansraj G Ahir (BJP MP from Maharashtra) in both 14th and the 15th Lok Sabha.  The top 3 performers are:

1.  Mr Hansraj G Ahir (BJP MP Maharashtra) - 31 bills

2.  Mr Jai Prakash Agarwal (Congress MP Delhi) - 23 bills

3.  Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP MP Rajasthan) - 20 bills

Since introduction of Private Members Bills involves more home work, only 84 MPs have introduced 372 such bills.  Of this 84 also, only 11 MPs have introduced more than 10 bills.  These 11 MPs have introduced 165 bills.

Top perming MPs for asking Questions

1,34,231 Questions have been asked by the Members.  Nearly 50% of the questions were asked by top 100 MPs.  The top 3 MPs in this category are:

1.  Mr Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena MP Maharashtra) - 1170 Questions.

2.  Mr Gajanan Dharmshi Baba (Shiv Sena MP Maharashtra) - 1085 Questions

3.  Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMEM MP from Andhra) - 1042 Questions.

Mr Pradeep Kumar Majhi (Congress MP from  Orissa) has asked 1032 Questions.  In the current 15th Lok Sabha, till date, only 4 MPs have asked questions beyond 1000.

It may be noted that Mr Anandrao Adsul has been maintaining the No 1 position for questions from the 14th Lok Sabha.  

Overall top performers (Debates+Private bills+Questions) - total tally

The following MPs are the top performers.

1. Mr Anandrao Adsul (SS MP Maharashtra) - total tally 1208

2. Mr S S Ramasubbu (Cong MP Tamil Nadu) - 1141

3(a). Mr Gajanan Dharmshi Baba (SS MP Maharshtra) - 1109

3(b) Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP MP Rajasthan) - 1109

8 MPs have scored total tally of more than 1000.  The other 4 MPs  are:

Mr Asaduddin Owaisi, Mr Hansraj G Ahir, Pradeep Kumar Majhi and Mr Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (SS MP Maharashtra).

Top performers under Women MPs

There are 63 women MPs in the current Lok Sabha.  Among them, the top 3 performers for the overall tally are:

1.  Ms. Supriya Sule (NCP MP Maharashtra) - Total tally 752

2.  Ms. Ratna Singh (Congress MP UP) - 664

3.  Ms. Rama Devi (BJP MP Bihar) - 652 

100% Attendance

Only 2 MPs have scored 100% attendance.  We have considered the MPs who are functioning from the beginning of the 15th Lok Sabha.  

1.  Mr K P Dhanapalan (Congress MP Kerala) - Total tally 508

2.  Mr Ramesh Kumar (Congress MP Delhi) - Total tally 'zero'

MPs with least performance

25 MPs have a total tally of 'zero'.  That means, they have not participated in debates, asked questions or introduced private bills.  34 MPs have single digit tally (1 to 9).

Ms Vijaya Shanthi (TRS MP from Andhra and actress), Mr Ramesh Kumar (Congress MP from Delhi) have zero participation.  

Vijayashanthi's total tally (Debates, private members bills and questions) is 'zero' and her attendance is 12%.

Interestingly, Mr Ramesh Kumar, South Delhi MP has scored a total tally of 'zero' with 100% attendance.  

Mr Rahul Gandhi (Congress MP and PM in waiting) has scored a total tally of 1, with one time participation in a debate.  His attendance is 43%.  

Ms Sonia Gandhi (Congress MP) has a total tally of 2 with 47% attendance.

Kalyan Singh, Dayanidh Maran, H D Kumaraswamy, Chandrasekar Rao (noted leaders) have a total tally of 1 or 2.  Chandrasekar Rao (TRS MP from Andhra)  has attended only 10% of the sittings.

Congratulations

Let us all congratulate the top performing MPs.  Irrespective of the party affiliation, they should return to Lok Sabha in the next General Elections.  

We are also proud that our Sansad Ratna Awardees viz. Mr Anandrao Adsul, Mr Ramasubbu, Mr Hansraj G Ahir, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal and Ms Rama Devi have all maintained their lead positions and showing better performance.

By Prime Point Srinivasan

Source:  www.loksabha.nic.in and www.prsindia.org

The full details of the performance of all MPs can be downloaded from the link.

http://www.prsindia.org/MPTrack-15.xls

  

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Sansad Ratna Award 2013 winning MPs Anandrao Adsul, Hansraj and Ramasubbu share their inspiring stories

Sansad Ratna Award 2013 winning MPs Hansraj G Ahir, Anandrao Adsul and S S Ramasubbu,

Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 were presented to top performing Lok Sabha MPs on 20th April 2013 at IIT Madras.  The Awards are instituted by Prime Point Foundation.  After the presentation of Awards, the award winning MPs were invited for a panel discussion to share their success stories. We have written about this in our earlier posting also.

Mr Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra) and Mr Hansraj G Ahir (BJP MP from Maharashtra) shared their experiences and also expressed their views on disruption of Parliament.  They are receiving the Awards for the fourth year in a row. Please listen to their views.  (17 minutes)

This video may also be watched from the link

http://youtu.be/_ZKrnUUgByI

Mr S S Ramasubbu (Congress MP from Tamil Nadu) is also one of the outstanding MPs of Lok Sabha.  He has been receiving the Award for the past four years continously.  Please listen to his success story.

This video may also be watched from the link

http://youtu.be/4xU3bs4_mHM

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 - Panel discussion on politics, democracy and governance

Panel discussion in Tamil on politics, democracy and governance

In our earlier posting, we write briefly about the Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 function and the National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance held at IIT Madras on 20th April 2013. The Awards were instituted by Prime Point Foundation, Chennai for the top performing Lok Sabha MPs. The national seminar was organised jointly with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Madras.  

In the post lunch session, a panel discussion was held on the same theme.  Mr Thol Thirumavalavan MP (VCK), Ms Vijayadarani MLA (Congress), Mr CH Sekar MLA (DMDK), Mr H Raja (BJP), Ms Vasuki (CPIM), Mr Prem Shankar (Puthiyathalaimurai TV), Ms Josephine (Academician), Mr P K Saravanan (Student) and Mr V Ponraj (Advisor to Dr Abdul Kalam) were the expert panelists.  Ms Bhanu Gomes, anchored the discussions.

Youth participation in politics, electoral reforms, role of voters in democracy, better governance and many other topics were discussed.  The leaders from different political parties and opposite ideologies showed the highest level of maturity and decency in their conversations.   We embed below the discussions in three parts.  Please watch them.  The proceedings are in Tamil.

Part - One

This video may also be watched from the link

http://youtu.be/A9TxB2eTv0U

Part - Two

This video may also be watched from

http://youtu.be/Kc92UlHUu18

Part - Three

This video may also be watched from
http://youtu.be/sxch0joUPig

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Sansad Ratna Award 2013 - Award winner Arjun Ram Meghwal speaks on disruption in Parliiament

Mr T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India)
presenting Sansad Ratna Award 2013 to Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal,
Member of Parliament from Bikanir, Rajasthan

Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, Member of Parliament from Bikanir, Rajasthan ranks No 1 among all the MPs of Lok Sabha for participation in debates and he received the Sansad Ratna Award 2013 in a function held at IIT Madras.  The Award is instituted by Prime Point Foundation.  Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India presented the Awards.    

Dr K Rosaiah, the Governor of Tamil Nadu was the Chief Guest. Since Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal arrived late due to flight delay, the Award was presented in the next session, after the departure of the Governor.  

After receiving the  Awards, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal in his acceptance speech, talked about the disruption in Parliament.  He said, disruption was also part of the Parliament function under rules, to draw the attention of the Government on many vital issues.  He said, but for disruptions, the culprits in 2G, Delhi gang-rape,  and coal-gate would not have been arrested.  However, they would ensure smooth functioning of the Parliament.

Please see the video of his speech (3 minutes 40 seconds)

The video may also be watched from the following link:

http://youtu.be/aj0HfYfw790

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 - Overview of Indian Parliament - Presentation by Chakshu Rai

Chakshu Rai of PRS Legislative Research 

A National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance was held by Prime Point Foundation on 20th April 2013 jointly with IIT Madras in their Auditorium.  The National Seminar was inaugurated by Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu.  Top performing Lok Sabha MPs were presented with Sansad Ratna 2013 Awards, instituted by Prime Point Foundation.

As part of the National Seminar, Mr Chakshu Rai of PRS Legislative Research made a presentation on 'Overview of Indian Parliament - Tracking the work of legislators'.  During his presentation, he explained the overall functions of Indian Parliament and the duties of the Parliamentarians. 

The powerpoint presentation is embedded here.

Please watch the video footage of the presentation 

This video may also be watched from youtube link

http://youtu.be/ODR0DuH89fg

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 - Electoral Reforms + Disruption of Parliament

T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India)
 and Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu

In our earlier posting, we had published a brief report about the presentation of Sansad Ratna Awards and launching of ezine PreSense to mark the inauguration of National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance.

Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India presented the Awards to six top performing MPs of Lok Sabha.  

Quoting Mr Edmund Berk, a well known Parliamentarian of UK, T S Krishna Murthy said that the people should elect a Member who takes care of national interest, if there is a conflict between constituency interest and national interest.  He expressed concern over (1) the election of members with 15 to 20 percent of votes (2) money power in elections and (3) lack of internal democracy in political parties.  He recalled the suggestions for Electoral reforms  submitted by him, when he was the Chief Election Commissioner of India to the Prime Minister in 2004.  The Government is yet to take action on these suggestions.  

Mr T S Krishna Murthy also suggested that Government  can set up a fund to take care of the election expenses of the political parties.  All corporates can be asked to donate to this fund which can be given tax exemption.  This would avoid nexus between corporates and the political parties,  The entire audience applauded when he gave this suggestion.

Dr Rosaiah launched the special edition of ezine PreSense marking the inauguration of National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance.  

Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu during his speech expressed concern over the disruptions in Parliament.  Quoting PRS Legislative Research, he said that 32% of the Parliament time was wasted due to disruptions in the current 15th Lok Sabha.  Due to such disruptions, many bills could not be discussed and passed.  Even many of the MPs could not present their views in spite of their preparations.  Quoting the speech of  Mr Pranabkumar Mukherjee, President of India in the Joint Session of Parliament recently,  Dr Rosaiah said that such disruptions may create cynicism in the minds of people who may lose faith in the democratic institutions. He appealed to all Members of Parliament to ensure zero disruption.  He also wanted the MPs to explore the visionary projects for their constituency that can help the develop of neighbouring districts also during their tenure .

In the panel discussions that followed the inauguration, the panelists discussed these two aspects viz. (1) elctoral reforms and (2) disruption of Parliament to find some solution.   There was a general consensus among the panelists and the audience that electoral reforms and the smooth functioning of Parliament are essential for a healthy democracy.  Though disruption is permitted under Parliament rules to register the protest, everybody felt that it should not exceed the limit.

Please watch this video (20 minutes) to see the presentation of Awards and inspiring speeches of Dr K Rosaiah and T S Krishna Murthy.

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 - Special edition of ezine PreSense

This special edition this unique 73rd edition (April 2013) of your ezine PreSense was released by Dr K. Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu during the Sansad Ratna Award function on 20th April 2013.  With the launch of your ezine PreSense  by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, this ezine enters a new era of credibility adding more responsibility to our team, to continue to  provide highest quality contents in future.

On this happy occassion, editorial team thanks all the readers for the sustained support and feedback.  

After the launch of this special edition by the Governor, we  added the photos and the proceedings of the Sansad Ratna Award function.  Since the General Elections will be held in few months, this ezine will be useful for all the citizens to understand our constitutional democracy, which we may have to be proud of.  

This edition broadly contains the following:

1.  Dr Abdul Kalam's exclusive message to our Sansad Ratna Award function;

2.  Overview of Indian Parliament;

3.  Interesting facts about Parliament chambers;

4.  Sittings held by Indian Parliament from 1952 to April 2013;

5.  Business done by Lok Sabha during sittings;

6.  Humour in Lok Sabha;

7.  Performance of 15th Lok Sabha - Bills passed - disruption details;

8.  Top performing MPs of 15th Lok Sabha;

9.  A brief report on Sansad Ratna 2013 Award function;

Since this is a special edition released by the Governor, we have focussed exclusively on Indian Parliament.   We will follow our usual format from the next edition onwards.

This ezine may be downloaded from the following link. (700 k in pdf)

http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0413.pdf 

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 & National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance - Brief Report Part II

In our earlier article, we presented the report on the presentation of Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 by Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Dr K. Rosaiah, The Governor of Tamil Nadu.  

To coincide with the Award function, Prime Point Foundation, jointly with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras organised a National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance.  This seminar included three sessions, including one session  on Indian Parliamentary system by PRS Legislative Research and two panel discussions.

Presentation on Indian Parliamentary system

Chakshu Roy (inset) making presentation

Chakshu Roy of PRS Legislative Research, Delhi made a presentation on the Indian Parliamentary system and the functions of the Parliament.  He also explained as to how media and public can track the the performance of legislators.  The presentation is given below.

Panel Discussion I with Award Winning MPs

Panel Discussion I with Sansad Ratna Award 2013 winning MPs. Dr Jhansi, Hansraj Ahir, Anandrao Adsul, S S Ramasubbu, Rama Devi Arjun Ram Meghwal

Six Award winning MPs Anandrao Adsul, S S Ramasubbu, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Rama Devi and Dr Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi were invited to be the panelists to share their success stories.  These MPs shared their work procss to achieve this level.  The topics like disruption in parliament, linking of rivers and other nationally important issues were discussed.  They also explained as to how the raising of questions and participation in debates help to get the advantage for the people. The programme was anchored by Susan Koshy and V Rajendran translated the Hindi speeches into English.

Panel Discussion II with Tamil Nadu political leaders, social workers, media person, student

PK Saravanan (student), Prem Shankar (Puthiya Thalaimurai TV), V Ponraj (Advisor to Dr Abdul Kalam), U Vasuki (CPIM), H Raja (BJP), Thol Thirumavalavan MP (VCK), Vijayadarani MLA (Congress), Ch. Sekar MLA (DMDK), Josephine (Academician) and Bhanu Gomes (anchor)

Another panel discussion with various  political leaders of Tamil Nadu and socially conscious persons was held in the afternoon.  The entire proceedings were held in Tamil.  Ms Bhanu Gomes anchored the discussions.

The true meaning of Indian politics based on Constitutional democracy, possible hurdles for a new political entrant, qualities for a new political entrant, political parties reforms, electoral reforms, Political parties' selection of candidates , Parties' ideologies, Media's role in democracy, paid news problem in Media, Must-have changes in Education system, muscle power& money power in politics, high cost of elections, problems in policy making, problems in implementation, decentralization of power, Women' safety in politics, Women's Bill were all discussed.  

Youngsters from different parts of Tamil Nadu participated.  This National Seminar and Sansad Ratna Award function was supported by Indian Overseas Bank (Gold Sponsor), Bank of Maharashtra (Silver sponsor), Corporation Bank, UCO Bank and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (banner sponsors).

The professional handling of Dr Sudarshan, Sasi and their team in various departments of IIT Madras made the event a grand show.  

On behalf of Sansad Ratna Team, Susan, Rajendran, Bhanu, Abdul Gani, Pradeep, Kannan, Sukruti worked tirelessly planning every minutest details.  Participation of the Governor of Tamil Nadu, six award winning MPs, senior political leaders from different parties with a constructive discussion added the credibility of the Sansad Ratna Award.  

The  Sansad Ratna Awardees carried a pleasant memory of this event and motivated them to excel their own performance in the days to come.

The photos of the entire event may be seen from here.

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Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 - A brief report - Part I

Prime Point Foundation, and ezine PreSense honour the top performing MPs with ‘Sansad Ratna Awards’ for the past four years, based on their participation  in debates, raising questions, introduction of private member bills and attendance.  The data is made available by PRS Legislative Research, New Delhi.  This year the Foundation has added two more categories to include women MPs and young MPs  less than 35 years of age.

4th Annual Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 was held at IIT Madras on Saturday the 20th April 2013.  A national seminar on politics, democracy and governance also was organised jointly with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT Madras.  The purpose of the seminar and the Award is to create awareness among the people about the democracy and governance.

Sansad Ratna Awards 2013

The Foundation selected 5 MPs for overall performance tally, 4 top performers among women MPs and one young MP under 35 for the awards.  Out of these MPs, six  MPs received the awards at Chennai from Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Dr K Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu.   Others could not participate due to their preoccupation in their constituency.

Award winning MPs with Governor of Tamil Nadu

TS Krishna Murthy, Dr Jhansi MP, Rama Devi MPm
S S Ramasubbu MP, H.E. Dr K Rosaiah (Governor of Tamil Nadu),
Hanraj G Ahir MP, Anandrao Adsul MP, Prof. K Ramamurthy

Mr Anandrao Adsul, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra was honoured for maintaining the top position in raising questions in the current 15th Lok Sabha.  He has raised 1055 questions till the end of last sittings in March 2013 with a total participation tally of 1091 for debates, questions and private member bills.  Mr Anandrao Adsul was the topper in raising questions even in the 14th  Lok Sabha, by raising 1255 questions with a total participation tally of 1290.

Mr S S Ramasubbu, Congress MP from Tamil Nadu secured the second position in the total performance tally of 1038 and maintains No 1 position among Tamilnadu MPs from the time the awards were instituted.

Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP MP from Rajasthan received  the Award for the second year for his outstanding performance in debates - by participating in 386 debates.  His total tally is 1002.

Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, BJP MP from Maharashtra was honoured  for being No 1 in  the category ‘introduction of private member bills’ with a total participation tally of 996.  He has introduced 31 Private Member Bills in this Lok Sabha.  

It may also be noted that Mr Hansraj Ahir and Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal have together introduced 51 private member bills, out of the 372 private member bills (14%)  introduced in the current Lok Sabha by all the members.

Mr Anandrao Adsul, Mr Ramasubbu and Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir received the Awards fourth time in a row.

Among the top performing women MPs, though 4 women MPs were selected and invited, two MPs received the Awards at Chennai.  These women MPs were honoured  with ‘Sansad Mahila Ratna’ Award.

Mrs Rama Devi, BJP MP from Bihar secured third position among all the women MPs in the Lok Sabha with her total score of 579.

Dr Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi, Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh has topped in debates among women MPs by participating in 131 debates.  Her total participation tally is 478.

The purpose of such Award function is to recognize the top performers at national level and to motivate others to perform better.

Prime Point Foundation is the only organization in India which honours the top performing MPs every year based on their performance. 

A National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance will be held to coincide with this Award function.  Award winning MPs and other Tamilnadu political leaders will be participating in the panel discussion.  

Launching of special edition of ezine PreSense

Prime Point Foundation brought out a special edition of ezine (73rd edition) to coincide with this occassion bringing out various aspects of Parliament functions and the role of MPs.  The ezine was launched by Dr K. Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu.  The special edition may be downloaded from http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0413.pdf.

Planting of sapling in honour of Sansad Ratna Awardees 2013

All the six Award Winning MPs handed over a sapling to K Abdul Gani, Convenor of Green Kalam initiative.  The sapling was later on the same day planted inside the IIT Madras campus in honour of the top performing MPs. The purpose is to create an awareness about the environment protection.  All the MPs  assured that they would  actively promote the environmental protection concept in their respective constituencies.  

A brief video footage of the Award function

Please see this 14 minute video footage (courtesy Chennaionline)

source: http://youtu.be/rIQqfPNDmtw

Photographs taken during the event

We will post the details about the National Seminar on Politics, Democracy and Governance in our next posting.

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