Shrikant Shinde, Majumdar among 5 MPs selected for Sansad Ratna

New Delhi: Five Lok Sabha members, including BJP's Sukanta Majumdar and Shiv Sena's Shrikant Eknath Shinde, have been selected for the Sansad Ratna Awards this year, its organisers announced on Sunday.

BJP's Sudheer Gupta, NCP's Amol Ramsing Kolhe and Congress' Kuldeep Rai Sharma are the other three MPs selected for the awards to be presented at a function in the national capital on February 17. The Sansad Ratna Awards are presented annually to the top-performing parliamentarians based on their performance, while the Sansad Maha Ratna Awards are presented once in five years for consistency in performance during the term of the Lok Sabha.

Chennai-based non-profit charitable trust Prime Point Foundation instituted these honours at the instance of former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, who himself inaugurated the first award event in 2010 in Chennai. Prime Point Foundation's founder and chairman K Srinivasan said these awards are based on comprehensive performance, with nominees being selected by a distinguished jury committee chaired by Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, and T S Krishnamurthy, former Chief Election Commissioner of India.

The performance data is sourced from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites and the PRS Legislative Research. This is the only award presented by civil society to honour top-performing parliamentarians in India.

Sansad Ratna Awards committee chairperson and Prime Point Foundation's trustee secretary Priyadharshni Rahul said N K Premachandran (RSP, Kerala), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Indian National Congress, West Bengal), Bidyut Baran Mahato (BJP, Jharkhand), and Heena Vijayakumar Gavit (BJP, Maharashtra) have been selected for the Sansad Maha Ratna Awards for the entire 17th Lok Sabha.

"Recognising the continued consistent top performance of Supriya Sule (NCP, Maharashtra), Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena, Maharashtra) and Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD, Odisha), the Sansad Maha Ratna Awardees of the previous 16th Lok Sabha, the jury committee has decided to honour them for their exemplary performance in the 17th Lok Sabha as well and these three MPs would be honoured with the Sansad Utkrisht Mana Ratna Award," she added.

She further said that all the awardees have been selected transparently by the jury committee based on their performance in initiating debates, private member bills and questions raised by them in Parliament.

Considering the importance of Parliamentary committees, three Standing Committees have also been selected for the Sansad Maha Ratna Awards, starting with the current 17th Lok Sabha.

The Agriculture Committee, chaired by P C Gaddi Gowdar (BJP, Karnataka), the Finance Committee, chaired by Jayant Sinha (BJP, Jharkhand), and the Transport and Tourism Committee, currently chaired by Vijayasai Reddy (YSR Congress, Andhra Pradesh) and formerly by T G Venkatesh (BJP, Andhra Pradesh), have been nominated for their consistent contributions based on sittings and the reports presented by them, relying on the data commensurate with the term of the 17th Lok Sabha.