Soon after a brief tea-break, the
Chief Guest, Justice (Retired) Shri P.Sathasivam, Honourable Governor of Kerala
arrived on the dot to take his seat on the dais, with the Central Minister and
the associated team members of the Sansad Ratna Team, led by Shri K.Srinivasan,
popularly known as Prime Point Srinivasan. The session kickstarted with the
National Anthem, followed by the welcome address by Shri K.Srinivasan, who
spoke about the need for a proactive role of the civil society, and the
innovative work Parliamentarians could do in their respective constituencies.
Shri P. P.Chaudhary, Honourable Minister of State for Law & Justice, who
could not make it to the event, compensated for his absence by sending across a
video recording of his message for the occasion. This was played for the
benefit of those present at the event.
The presidential address was
presented by the Honourable Minister, Shri Meghwal. In his speech, he lauded
the high benchmark laid by the award-winning Parliamentarians and he made a
special mention of the Parliamentarian recipients of the Jury’s Special “Sansad
Ratna Award 2017”. He appreciated the quality of their performance in the
Parliament. Shri Meghwal also dwelt on the pivotal and pioneering role of Prime
Point Foundation under Shri K.Srinivasan, who translated an innovative idea
into reality with the institution of the Sansad Ratna Awards.
This session was selected for
honouring Shri M.R.Madhavan as President of PRS Legislative Research for the
outstanding work contributed by the institution to the Parliament, and to the
civil society through its data collection, analysis and collation. He was
awarded a citation by the Chief Guest. The Members of Parliament were then
called to the stage individually to receive their respective citations. The
awards were presented to them by the Chief Guest, the Honourable Governor. The
achievements of the individual MPs were announced as each of them stepped
forward onto the stage to receive the award. This was followed by a photo session
of the MPs with the Governor and the Minister.
The Chief Guest, Justice (Retd) Shri
Sathasivam then took to the podium to deliver his inaugural address. He
applauded the successful Parliamentarians. As the performing Parliamentarians
were also evaluated by their utilisation of the funds under MPLADS (Members of
Parliament Local Area Development Scheme), Shri Sathasivam shared the story of
how the relevance of the scheme of MPLADS was deliberated upon by a panel of
judges where he solely supported it and convinced the panel to approve the
plan.
At the conclusion of his address,
the Chief Guest was presented a memento of books by Shri Meghwal. The session
wound up with a Vote of Thanks by Dr S. Padmanabhan, Associate Professor, IIT
Madras, and the National Anthem, before the Governor exited from the
auditorium.
Interaction
Session with Award Winning Parliamentarians
 |
| Interactive session with Sansad Ratna Awardees 2017 |
The final one-hour session before
lunch was an interactive session with the MPs, when the MPs answered questions
about their special achievements in their respective constituencies. The
session was moderated by Dr Bhawanesh Deora, Secretary, Sansad Ratna Awards
Committee, Shri Ramesh Sethuraman, Additional Secretary of the Awards
Committee. Shri V.Rajendran, member of PreSense Editorial Team, assisted in
translation of Hindi to English to Hindi, where necessary.
Honouring
Social Worker
Shri Natarajan Raman of Dream India,
an NGO associated with the education of government school children, and adults,
was honoured with a citation for his outstanding social service, by the
Honourable Minister. The morning session concluded with the presentation of
mementos to the team and volunteers who worked for the event, and a photo
session.
Panel
Discussion on National Vision 2022 – Agriculture
 |
| Panelists - L to R : S S Rajasekar, Rajendra Singh, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss MP and S Ranganathan |
The post-lunch session was a panel
discussion on a topic of national relevance captioned “National Vision 2022 –
Agriculture”. Susan Koshy, Editor, PreSense introduced the panel of speakers.
The panel was chaired by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, MP. The other panellists
included Shri Rajendra Singh, activist and popularly known as the “Waterman of
India”, Shri S.Ranganathan, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta
Farmers’ Welfare Association, and Shri S.S.Rajasekar, Managing Trustee of
National Agro Foundation. The salient points discussed were the relevance of
traditional knowledge in crop cultivation, regulating the market to give the
fair share to the farmer, and incorporating modern technology in the
traditional process of agriculture to bring optimum yield to the advantage of
farmers and the economy.
Panel
Discussion on Tamil Nadu Vision 2022
 |
| Panelists: L to R – PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan MLA, R Nataraj MLA, Dr Mariazeena Johnson and K T Raghavan |
The final session was the second panel
discussion on “Tamil Nadu Vision 2022”. The panel was chaired by Dr Mariazeena
Johnson, Pro-Chancellor, Sathyabama University. The other panellists were Shri
R.Nataraj MLA, IPS (Retired) of the AIADMK Party, Shri PTR Palanivel
Thiagarajan MLA (DMK) and Shri K.T.Raghavan, State Secretary of BJP. The panel
was introduced by Shri R.Nurullah, Vice-President of the Sansad Ratna Awards
Committee. The panellists deliberated on the inefficiency of the current
bureaucratic system, and the lack of vision in the political system of the
state. The extent of corruption was instrumental in most of the potential
industries moving away from Tamil Nadu to other states. It was strongly
endorsed by the panel that until and unless a genuine sense of patriotism is
imbibed, there would always be a gap between vision and implementation of a
progressive Tamil Nadu.
The day’s event came to a conclusion
with the National Anthem. The partners for the event were Sathyabama University
and Canara Bank..
By
Susan Koshy, Editor, PreSense
(This is the cover story in the May 2017 issue of ezine PreSense)
