Bhubaneswar: As many as 24 MLAs bagged the Best Legislator Award in three different categories for following the parliamentary norms and maintaining discipline in the House.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Speaker Pradip Amat presented the awards to the best legislators for the years from 2009 to 2016 during a function here today.

The awards were presented in three different categories — Pandit Nilakantha Samman, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Samman and Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Samman — to the legislators chosen by the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) selection committee.

Pandit Nilakantha Best Legislator Award was conferred on the MLAs Bishnu Charan Das for the year 2009, Arun Kumar Sahoo for 2010, legislator Pravat Ranjan Biswal for 2011, Prafulla Majhi for 2012, Amar Prasad Satpathy for 2013, Pramila Mallick for the year 2014, Ranendra Pratap Swain (2015) and Dr Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik for the year 2016.

Similarly, the MLAs Surendra Nath Naik (2009), Bimbadhar Kuanr (2010), Nityananda Pradhan (2011), Umesh Chandra Swain (2012), Bikram Keshari Barma (2013), Rajendra Dholakia (2014), Surendra Prasad Pramanik (2015) and Chakradhar Paik (2016) were awarded with the Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Samman.

Besides, eight MLAs were presented the Utkalmani Gopabandhu Samman. They included Sanjay Dasburma (2009), Pritiranjan Gharai (2010), Samir Ranjan Dash (2011), Prashant Kumar Muduli (2012), Bijay Kumar Mohanty (2013), Dr. Raseswari Panigrahi (2014), Captain Dibya Shankar Mishra (2015) and Pradip Purohit for the 2016.