Praise thy MPs: 10 lawmakers to get performance awards

Chennai: Ten members of Lok Sabha, four of them women, have been named to be honoured with Sansad Ratna awards for their performance in parliament by Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah. However, only six of them would attend the ceremony, it was announced in Chennai on Monday. “For the past three years we have been recognising top performers in the Lok Sabha based on the number of questions, participation in debates and the number of private member’s bills introduced,” said K Srinivasan, founder of an NGO, Prime Point Foundation. “This year we have added two more categories, top performing women MPs (member of parliament) and young MP below 35 years of age,” Srinivasan said. The NGO in the past gave Sansad Ratna only in one, overall category. The five winners of Sansad Ratna in overall category this year are: Anandrao Adsul of the Shiv Sena from Maharashtra (score 1,091); S.S. Ramasubbu of the Congress from Tamil Nadu (score 1,038); Arjun Ram Meghwal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Rajasthan (1,002); Gajanan Dharmashi Babar of the Shiv Sena from Maharashtra (997); and Hansraj Gangaram Ahir (996), of the BJP from Maharashtra, Srinivasan said. Srinivasan said Ahir and Meghwal have together introduced 51 private member’s bills, of the 372 private members bills (14 percent) introduced in the current Lok Sabha. Interestingly Adsul, Ramasubbu and Ahir are receiving the top performer awards for fourth time in a row, he added. The four women members of parliament (MP) of the 55 in the Lok Sabha who have qualified for the Sansad Mahila Ratna award are Rama Devi of the BJP from Bihar (score 579), Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi of the Congress from Andhra Pradesh (478), Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party from Maharashtra (714), and Ratna Singh of the Congress from Uttar Pradesh (601). The Sansad Yuva Ratna award goes to Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh, with a score of 789. “Adsul, Ramasubbu, Meghwal, Ahir, Rama Devi and Lakshmi have confirmed participation in the award function slated on April 20 while others have expressed their inability to attend,” Srinivasan said. Citing PRS Legislative Research figures, Srinivasan said 32 percent of the Parliament’s time was lost during the 15th Lok Sabha as against 22 percent during the 14th Lok Sabha which in turn affects the performers. Agreeing with him, Ramasubbu said, “We spend lot of time in preparing for debates and for questions. When disruptions happen, our work goes waste and there may not be another chance.” IANS