Sansad Ratna Awards Shrikant Shinde, Sukanta among 5 gem of MPs

Five Lok Sabha members  including the 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. The 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.