Chennai: Nine outstanding Members of Parliament – six from the Lower House – will be honoured with `Sansad Ratna Awards 2017’ here on Saturday, “The awards will be presented to the parliamentarians by Kerala Governor P.Sathasivam,” Prime Point Foundation chairman K.Srinivasan told mediapersons here today.

The winners are Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena from Mavel, Maharashtra), Rajeev Shankarrao Satav ( Congress, Hingoli, Maharashtra) and Dhananjay Bhimrao Mahadik (NCP, Kolhapur, Maharashtra) have been nominated for awards under different categories.

Bhartruhari Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal, Cuttack, Odisha) and N K Premachandran (RSP, Kollam, Kerala) have been nominated for their excellence in quality of debates and other parliamentary proceedings.

Dr Heena Vijayakumar Gavit (BJP, Nandurbar, Maharashtra) has gets the award under the Women MP category.

Those from the Rajya Sabha are: Sanjay Raut (Shiva Sena, Maharashtra), K N Balagopal (CPM, Kerala) and Dr T N Seema (CPM, Kerala).

Instituted by Prime Point Foundation and eMagazine PreSense, the awards are based on the suggestion given by late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This is the eighth edition and the award are on behalf of the civil society to honour achievers in Parliament, Srinivasan said.

The performance is measured based on the number of debates they participate, the number of questions raised, the number of private member bills introduced, attendance and usage of funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

Since last year, outstanding Rajya Sabha members who had retired the previous year, after completing the full six-year term had also been given the awards.

The jury is headed by Anandrao Adsul (fifth time MP), and has Hansraj G Ahir (Minister of State – Home and fourth time MP) and Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal (Minister of State – Finance and Corporate Affairs and second time MP) as members.