NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 24
Eight sitting Lok Sabha members and two Rajya Sabha members will be presented the 11th edition of Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 under various categories, based on their performance during the first year of the 17th Lok Sabha, said Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Parliament Affairs and Chairman of the Jury Committee on Wednesday.
Releasing the list of awardees, Arjun Ram Meghwal observed that recognition and performance review of Parliamentarians by the civil society helps strengthen democracy.
Meghwal said when ‘We the people’ elect the Parliamentarians and legislators, they have the moral responsibility to monitor the performance of the elected representatives.
Apart from individual parliamentarians, the departmentally related Standing Committee on Agriculture headed by P.C. Gaddigoudar (BJP MP from Bagalkot, Karnataka) has been chosen for the Sansad Ratna Awards 2020 for their performance in the 17th Lok Sabha.
The Chennai-based Prime Point Foundation has been awarding top performing Members of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha with the Sansad Ratna award since 2010 following the suggestion of former President late A. P. J.Abdul Kalam. The first edition of the award was launched by Kalam in May 2010.
Sansad Maha Ratna Awards
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD, Cuttack, Odisha), Supriya Sule (NCP, Baramati, Maharashtra) and 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. 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.
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.
Subhash Ramrao Bhamre (BJP, Dhule, Maharashtra), Heena Gavit (BJP, Nandurbar, Maharashtra) and Amol Ramsing Kolhe, (NCP, Shirur, Maharashtra) will be receiving the Sansad Ratna Award 2020 for Questions, Women and First-time MPs categories respectively.
Shashi Tharoor (INC, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), Nishikant Dubey (BJP, Godda, Jharkhand), Ajay Misra (BJP, Kheri, Uttar Pradesh) and 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
Vishambhar Prasad Nishad (Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh) and 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.
According to K. Srinivasan, Chairman of the Prime Point Foundation and Sansad Ratna Awards Committee, the date of the awards presentation event will be announced later once normalcy comes back after Covid-19 pandemic.
