The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi Government to review selection process for “Best MLA” awards

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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
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Delhi Government to review selection process for “Best MLA” awards

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Move comes after presentation of awards to some legislators with a not so “clean” image

Selection for awards done without any criteria
Delhi Govt. not consulted on the names of awardees

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Government is planning to change the procedure for selection of the “Best Legislator” awards and the “Ambedkar Ratna” awards.

The move comes hot on the heels of Monday’s ceremony where the latest of these awards were conferred on some legislators who had let down the Delhi Assembly through their conduct and also on a person who is described as an accused in a criminal case.

Sources in the Delhi Government said on Tuesday that what was even more disconcerting was that while selecting these persons for the awards, scant regard was paid to the fact that they would be presented by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who has been a Member of Parliament of 10 different Houses and is a distinguished winner of the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.

The manner in which the selection for the awards was done, without any criteria, has raised many eyebrows in the Capital. While the Delhi Government provides financial assistance for these awards, it was not even consulted on the names of the awardees.

Ideally a committee should have been constituted under the Delhi Chief Secretary but that was not done, said a senior Congress legislator.

Moreover, many legislators inimical to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were among the awardees and Ms. Dikshit was made to present bouquets to them.

Among them was Bheesham Sharma of the Congress who was voted the Best Legislator for 2007, the year in which he was suspended from the House for a day for assaulting BJP chief whip Sahab Singh Chauhan. More recently, during the Lieutenant-Governor’s address to the Delhi Assembly in March, he was involved in a physical fight with BJP legislators in the well of the House.

Also, many of the legislators who were awarded seldom actively participated in the House and legislators in both the Congress and the BJP feel that more deserving ones could have been awarded.

As Speaker Prem Singh had occupied the dais along with Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna, Ms. Dikhist and Leader of Opposition Jagdish Mukhi, many believe it would have been better if Mr. Singh, who also holds the record of winning all the elections to the representative bodies of Delhi since 1958, had excluded himself from the list of awardees for the Ambedkar Ratna awards.

Award for Speaker

“We had even suggested that we would hold a special felicitation function for him for completing 50 years of uninterrupted legislative career, but the Speaker ended up awarding himself during the function in the Delhi Assembly,” said a Delhi Government source.

The manner in which the Ambedkar Ratna awards were given away has now also made the Delhi Government reconsider its role in the selection of the awards that carry a cash component of Rs.1 lakh each.

But the most worrisome aspect of the function was the presentation of the Ambedkar Ratna award to a person involved in a criminal case.

“This was definitely something that should have been avoided,” said a Minister.

A senior Congress leader also objected to the manner in which the Delhi Assembly hall was used for a public function.

“The House is not a public place. The function could have been held in a committee room or in the lawns. And moreover, most MLAs and even the Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal felt ignored during the award function, while family members and relatives of a few stole all the limelight.”

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