If you know someone who has done exemplary work for Bangalore, now may be the time to give them credit. Namma Bengaluru Awards, intended to honour unsung heroes of the city, have opened its nominations for this year.

Nominations were launched on October 31st and will close on November 30th.T he awards are instituted by Namma Bengaluru Foundation, founded by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar. Started in 2009, this is the third edition of the awards.

A person can nominate oneself or others here. Supporting documents on the nominee’s work can be loaded online itself. This year the awards are for six categories – citizens, government employees, elected representatives, social entrepreneurs, groups/organisations and government organisations.

The application allows nomination even if the nominee is not under any of these six categories. The candidate can also be nominated for the ‘Namma Bengalurean of the Year’ award.

Last year 10 Bangaloreans had won the awards. "We are expecting educational institutions, Resident Welfare Associations, corporates, NGOs etc. to nominate their members who have done good work," says N R Suresh, spokesperson at Namma Bengaluru Foundation.

Last year there were separate categories for entrepreneur and sportsperson, which have been removed this year. Instead these individuals can be nominated under the ‘citizen’ category this time. "The awards are evolving each year, this year the jury decided to reduce the number of categories," says Trigam Mukherjee, spokesperson at Namma Bengaluru Foundation.

There are 20 members in this year’s jury; Rajeev Chandrashekhar is jury Chairman. Trigam says that the Foundation receives 100-150 nominations every day. "The jury will deliberate over the applications for about a month, then a professional neutral agency will do background verification of each nominee. This is for transparency," he says.

Depending on the type of nomination, sub-committees will be formed among the jury. "For example if someone working for the urban poor has been nominated, jury members who are active in that area or have good knowledge of it, will assess that application," says Suresh.

The sub-committees will hold interviews of the applicants. Finally, a meeting of all jury members will be held, wherein the sub-committees will present the nominations they assessed. The jury will assign points to all nominations and select the winners.

If there is a tie between two nominees in a category, both may be selected for the award. Winners are awarded a trophy, certificate and cash prize. The cash prize amount was Rs 1 lakh last year for each category, but has not been finalised for this year. Awards will be based on achievements rather than the number of nominations one gets.

The nomination form can be submitted directly, or they can be downloaded and mailed to nba2011@namma-bengaluru.org. Forms filled manually can be mailed to P.O. Box No. 25234, GPO, Bengaluru. Forms can also be picked up or dropped at Bangalore One, CUPPA, Food World or Coffee Day outlets.⊕