Coal Nayak and Sansad Ratna Awardee Hansraj Ahir turns 61 and takes over as a Minister in Modi Government

Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, BJP MP from Chandrapur is popularly known as 'Coal Nayak' for his unearthing coal scam. He is also the recipient of 'Sansad Ratna Award' for the past five years continuously for his consistent outstanding performance in the 15th Lok Sabha.  During May 2014, he was elected as MP for fourth time from Chandrapur (Maharashtra).  

Today (11th Novmber 2014) Shri Hansraj Ahir completes 60.  On this day, he also takes charge as Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.  

Hansraj G Ahir taking charge as MOS on 11th November 2014 - (L to R) Anantha Kumar, Cabinet Minister and Hansraj Ahir

Prime Point Foundation and the editorial team of ezines PreSense and New Gen Thamizhan congratulate him for his achievement.  We pray His Almighty to bless him for his continued dedicated service to the Nation in the new role.

It is worth reading an article in The Hindu (11 Nov 2014).  

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/why-modi-chose-ahir/article6584744.ece

Why Modi chose Ahir

A prominent leader from Vidarbha, Ahir unearthed coal scam

By roping in Chandrapur MP Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, nicknamed ‘coal nayak’ for exposing the coal block allocation scam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved two objectives.

The Prime Minister, by bringing him into the Union Council of Ministers, has sent out a signal that his government means business on the issue of probity in public life.

Mr. Ahir, hailed as a “role model” for MPs by the then Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, had meticulously collected information on irregularities in coal block allocations. After his numerous attempts to get information from the PMO went in vain, he, along with another BJP MP Prakash Javadekar (now a Minister), petitioned the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for an inquiry. Based on the complaint, the CVC ordered a CBI inquiry which proved to be costly for the UPA government. The Supreme Court eventually cancelled the allocations saying they were done in an “illegal manner.”

Secondly, Mr. Modi has sent out a message that the development of the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, which has witnessed sporadic but peaceful agitations for a separate State for a long time, is one of the top items on the agenda of his government. Mr. Ahir is a prominent leader from the region.

The BJP was one of the national parties that at one time had supported the demand for a separate Vidarbha. The first BJP Chief Minister of the State, Devendra Fadnavis, is also from this region.

The State unit of the party in general and Mr. Fadnavis in particular were in a spot when Mr. Modi, in one of his very first Assembly election rallies, had emphatically declared that Maharashtra would not be divided as long as he was in power. Mr. Modi’s stance was seen as a counter to the campaign by the Shiv Sena that the BJP, if elected to power, would carve out a State of Vidarbha.

With Mr. Fadnavis as the Chief Minister, Nitin Gadkari (who is an MP from Nagpur) as Cabinet Minister and now Mr. Ahir as a Minister of State, the Prime Minister has ensured that Vidarbha is at the centre stage of politics.

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Interaction session on 'Role of Parliament in Indian democracy' - 4th October 2014

L to R : Kumar Rajendran, Srinivasa Prabhu and Prithvi

Sansad Ratna Awards Committee organised an interaction session with Shri B Srinivasa Prabhu, (Director of Lok Sabha Secretariat, Delhi) on Saturday the 4th October 2014 at Dr MGR Janaki Arts and Science College, Chennai.  G A Prithvi, coordinator of this event and a member of Sansad Ratna Team welcomed the gathering.  

During his interaction session, Shri Srinivasa Prabhu explained the various functions of Parliament and the role of MPs.  He also explained how a bill is introduced and passed in the Parliament, before it is implemented.

He shared one interesting incident in the Lok Sabha. When all the bills come into force only after being passed in both the Houses of Parliament and the approval of the President, the finance bill comes into force from the midnight of the day on which it is introduced in the Lok Sabha.  All taxes and duties have to be levied from the midnight of the same day.  

While introducing the bill, the Finance Minister has to say "I introduce the bill".  When Indira Gandhi was the Finance Minister, the bill was presented to the Lok Sabha. There was melee in the House.  There was a confusion whether the Finance Minister said "I introduce the bill".  There was no Lok Sabha TV during those time for verification.  If the FM had not said 'I introduce the bill', this would have created a legal problem for enforcing the tax from the midnight.  To avoid legal problem, at that time, speaker summoned all the Lok Sabha Members at 10 pm in the night. Indira Gandhi formally introduced the bill in the sitting held at 10 pm.

Mr Srinivasa Prabhu explained the importance of standing committees, private members bills, MPLAD funds, etc.

Sukruti Vadula, Sansad Ratna Team member anchored the event and proposed vote of thanks. 

Sansad Ratna Team Members who organised this event: Prithvi GA, Suryah SG, N Rajaji, N Varadharajan and Sukruti Vadula 

Please see the pictures. 

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Sansad Ratna - Hall of Fame - Three MPs to be inducted

Sansad Ratna Awardees

Every year at the end of the first part of Budget Session of Lok Sabha, Prime Point Foundation and ezine PreSense  honour the top performing MPs based on the cumulative performance of members under 3 categories viz. debates, private members bills and questions.  

15th Lok Sabha conducted the business between 3rd June 2009 and 21st Feb 2014.  9 MPs who scored total tally of 1000 points (debates + private members bills + questions) and 3 top performing MPs were selected for 'Sansd Ratna Awards'.  The Awards were presented at Chennai Press Club during the last week of February 2014.  Click here for the award function.

MPs who secured No 1 position

In the 15th Lok Sabha Shri Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra) secured No 1 position under Questions category by raising 1266 questions. He scored a total point of 1304 and secured No 1 position for overall performance in 15th Lok Sabha.  Interestingly, he secured No 1 position for raising questions and overall performance in the 14th Lok Sabha also.

Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir (BJP MP from Maharashtra) has secured No 1 position under 'Private Members Bills' category by introducing 31 private bills, out of 372  private members bills introduced in the 15th Lok Sabha. The land acquisition bill passed in the 15th Lok Sabha was first introduced by him both in 14th and 15th Lok Sabha as private members bills only.  Then UPA Government accepted his concept and formally introduced the land acquisition bill as an official bill later. He is the whistle blower of coal scam, which is rocking the nation.

Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP MP from Rajasthan), an IAS officer turned MP secured No 1 position under debates category, by participating in 430 debates.  Though official figures  of past Lok Sabha performance could not be traced, in our view, his performance should be the top most in the last 64 years.  

Interestingly, all the above three MPs have been consistently maintaining their lead records right from the first year.

Sansad Ratna Hall of Fame

Sansad Ratna Committee has decided to induct the above three MPs (Shri Anandrao Adsul, Shri Hansraj Ahir, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal) into 'Sansad Ratna Hall of Fame', because of their achieving No 1 position in the 15th Lok Sabha under three categories.

After induction into the Hall of Fame, they become permanent members of Sansad Ratna elite group.  They will guide the Sansad Ratna Committee for framing the future Award guidelines and also in the selection process. They will also mentor other fresh MPs to perform effectively in the Lok Sabha.

Prime Point Foundation plans to organise a grand function at IIT, Chennai during the middle of October 2014 by inviting eminent personalities to induct the three MPs into the Hall of Fame.

Civil society is highly proud of these 3 top performing MPs.  The civil society hopes with their mentorship, our 16th Lok Sabha will have more of Sansad Ratnas.  

By K. Srinivasan

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Performance of 16th Lok Sabha till the end of Second Session (4th June 2014 to 14th August 2014)

The new 16th Lok Sabha commenced its business on 4th June 2014.  Till the end of Second Session (14th August 2014), the Lok Sabha had 33 sittings.

Business done

This 16th Lok Sabha witnessed one of the most productive sessions in the past one decade.  Though 14 hours and 1 minute was lost in disruption and forced adjournments, the members made up the business by sitting extra time of 30 hours and 45 minutes.  94% of the Budget demands were passed without discussions. 

20 Bills were introduced and 13 bills were passed. 61 Private Members bills were introduced.  388 matters were raised under Rule 377 by the members. During Zero Hour, 607 matters of urgent public important were taken up by members.  

We analyse the performance of Parliament and MPs based on four parameters, viz. (1) debates, (2) private members bills, (3) questions raised and (4) attendance.  

Ministers cannot participate in debates, introduce private bills and raise questions.  They also do not sign attendance.  Hence, our analysis excludes the Ministers.

Debates

During this two sessions, 443 members participated in 2475 debates, which includes, bills, matters taken up, etc.  National Average is 4.9 per member for debates.  Kerala MPs scored No 1 position with an average of 11.2 debates per member.  Andhra Pradesh MPs occupy the last position with 2.8 debates per member.

The top performers under debates category

P P Choudhary, BJP, Rajasthan - 39 debates

N K Premachandran, RSP, Kerala  - 30 debates

Private Members Bills

During these two sessions 61 Private Members Bills were introduced.  7 MPs have individually introduced 4 private members bills each.

BJP MPs - Hansraj G Ahir (Maharashtra), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Rajasthan), K P Solanki (Gujarat), AT Naha Patel (Maharashtra) and Nishikant Dubey (Jharkand)

BJP MP - Bhartruhari Mahtab (Odisha)

INC MP - M K Raghavan (Kerala)

Questions

During these two sessions, 8854 questions (starred, unstarred, supplementary) have been raised by the members.  National Average is 18 questions per member.  Kerala ranks No1 among the states with an average of 44 questions per member.  Uttarakand ranks last with 4 questions per member.

The top performers for raising questions.

Hansraj G Ahir (BJP, Maharashtra) - 115 Questions

Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMEI, Telangana) - 108 Questions

B V Nayak, (INC, Karnataka) - 105 Questions

Total Tally (Debates + Private Members Bills + Questions)

The following MPs have shown top performance for the total tally till the end of second session.

Hansraj G Ahir (BJP, Maharashtra) - Total tallly 129

Asasuddin Owaisi (AIMEI, Telangana) - Total tally 116

Nishikant Dubey (BJP, Jharkand) - Total tally 115

Attendance

152 MPs have attended all the 33 sittings and scored 100% attendance. National average for attendance is 87% per member.  Tamil Nadu ranks No 1 with an average of 98% per member. J & K ranks last with 62% average.

Lady Members

There are 62 Female Members in this 16th Lok Sabha.  The toppers among the female members for the total tally are:

Supriya Sule (NC, Maharashtra) - Total tally 104

Shobha Karandlaje (BJP, Karnataka) - Total tally 98

Both have secured 100% attendance.

We congratulate all the top performers.  Since many of the MPs are new, it is quite natural that they may find it difficult to get ramiliarised with the Parliament procedures.  A real analysis can be done only after one year effectively.

Some interesting facts

1.  61 MPs have not participated in any of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.  Their total tally is 'zero'.

2.  Actress Hemamalini (BJP, UP) with 'zero' tally has attended only 11% of the sittings.

The readers can find out the performance of their MPs from the following link.

http://www.prsindia.org/mptrack/16loksabha/

Source: PRS Legislative Research, Delhi

Compiled by K. Srinivasan

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Performance of Tamil Nadu MPs till the end of 2nd session of 16th Lok Sabha

Happy Independence Day.  Jai Hind

The Budget Session of the 16th Lok Sabha has ended today.  So far this 16th Lok Sabha has held two sssions with 33 sittings.  I attach herewith the performance of the MPs of Tamil Nadu on four parameters viz. debates, private members bills, questions and attendance.  

Mr T G Venkatesh Babu (Chennai North) with total score of 79 ranks No 1 among Tamil Nadu MPs.  He has also recorded 100% attendance.

Mr P Venugopal (Tiruvallur) secures 2nd rank among Tamil Nadu MPs with total score of 76 (attendance 100%).

Since most of the MPs from Tamil Nadu are first timers, it may take some time for them to get the feel of the Parliament. 

On behalf of Sansad Ratna Committee, I congratulate the top performers and wish them to secure national ranking in the coming sessions.

I will be sending the national level analysis tomorrow.

(Source: PRS Legislative Research www.prsindia.org)

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Sansad Ratna 2014 Awards presented to top performing Lok Sabha MPs of 15th Lok Sabha at Chennai

L to R: Rama Devi, S S Ramasubbu, Gajanan Babbar, N Gopalaswami, Shivaji Adhalrao Patil, Hansraj G Ahir, K Srinivasan

Top performing Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were honoured at Chennai Press Club with 'Sansad Ratna Award'.  Shri N Gopalaswami, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India presented the Awards.   (picture)

Prime Point Foundation, Ezines PreSense, New Gen Thamizhan and ELTF honour the top performing MPs, based on their participation in debates, introduction of private members bills and raising questions for the past 5 years.  The data is made available by Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India.  

Sansad Ratna team selected 9 MPs for overall performance who scored more than 1000 in the total tally of debates, private members bills and questions.  Besides, the team selected 3 top performing women MPs among the women MPs, based on the total tally.  We have announced already the names in our earlier posting.  

Though 8 MPs confirmed participation, 3 could not participate due to urgent political meetings.  Shri Hansraj G Ahir(BJP MP from Maharashtra), Shri S S Ramasubbu (Congres MP from Tamil Nadu), Shri Gajanan Babar (Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra), Shri Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra) and Smt Rama Devi (BJP MP from Bihar) received the Sansad Ratna Awards personally at Chennai on 22nd Feb 2014 from Shri N Gopalaswamy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India.

Some of the media reports online.

MPs win awards for their performance

Eight MPs Receive Sansad Ratna Awards for Best Performance

Parties should recognise performing legislators

Disruptions in Parliament prevented fruitful discussions: MP

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Political leaders and media experts deliberate on politics, democracy and governance - 14 Feb 2014 at IIT Madras

A National Seminar on 'Politics, democracy and governance' was held at IIT Madras on 15th Feb 2014 organised jointly by Prime Point Foundation and IIT Madras. This seminar was divided into three sessions.

Arvind Sivaramakrishnan

Session I - Presentation by Mr Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Senior Deputy Editor, The Hindu on ' Electoral systems and the composition of elected Assemblies in various democracies'.  He explained how the vote share gained and the seats gained do not match with each other.  He also compared the electoral systems in other countries.  

His presentation may be downloaded from this link.

Session II - Panel discussion on 'Media and Politics'.  Mr Ramalingam (Dinamalar), Mr R Bhagwan Singh (Deccan Chronicle), Mr Pandey (Thanthi TV), Mr Badri Seshadri (Internet media expert) and Ms Josephine (Social worker) were the panelists.  Bhanu Gomes anchored the panel discussions.

(L to R) Ramalingam, R Bhagwan Singh, Badri Seshadri, Josephine, Pandey and Bhanu Gomes

Burning issues like market driven media,  paid news, sensationalising  news and many issues were debated. The panelists also explained the economics of publishing a newspaper.  When a newspaper costs Rs.12/-, it is being sold at Rs.3/-.  The balance of Rs.9/- had to be met out of advertisements.  Hence, they are required to be more market oriented.  

Session III - Panel discussion on 'Mandate 2014'.  Mr H Raja (BJP), Mr T K Rangarajan MP (CPIM) , Mr Gobanna (Congress), Mr Thol Thirumavalavan MP (VCK), Mr David (AAP) and Mr Maalan (Senior Journalist) were the panelists.  Ms Bhanu Gomes anchored this panel discussion.

(L to R) Maalan, David,  T K Rangrajan MP,  H Raja, Thol Thirumavalavan MP,
Gobanna and Bhanu Gomes

During this discussion, all the representatives of the political parties shared their policies and the agenda that may be placed before the voters during this General Elections 2014.  Though the panelists belonged to different ideologies generating heat during debate, they presented their views with high level dignity and courtesy to each other.

(L to R) Prime Point Srinivasan, P Subbaramanian, Arumugam,
Divya and T K Rangarajan MP

After the panel discussions, Divya one of the beneficiaries of the Education loan scheme of Canara Bank was honoured for her getting University Rank, braving all challenges.  Mr T K Rangarajan MP, Mr P Subbramanian (DGM, Canara Bank) and Mr Arumugam (AGM, Canara Bank) presented the memento to her.

Team behind the success of the seminar

Please look at the photos taken during the event. The photos can be downloaded from this link.

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National Seminar on 'Politics, Democracy and Governance' 15th Feb 2014 - Registration

Please register through the form embedded below and share this link with others.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13F78hwN1vWZ4AzzZnyYX5_n0fY55Io2xXHJ9URtr1mQ/viewform

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