New Delhi: Agreeing to join the Planning
Commission`s steering committee on health after being
appointed by the government, civil rights activist Binayak Sen
on Wednesday said he will strive to bring "equity" in health-related
issues for deprived communities.
Sen, convicted for sedition, was appointed on board of
one of the Plan panel`s steering committees to give his inputs
for 12th Plan (2012-17) on health-related issues.
"I am very happy to get this information (of the
appointment on Plan panel`s committee). I would do whatever I
can... I will surely attend the first meeting of the
committee. I will like to bring on board and work for ensuring
further equity in health-related issues for deprived
communities," Sen told agency over phone from Chhattisgarh.
"I would bring my experience (to the panel) and my
focus would be on health equity, Sen added.
The 40-member steering committee on health is expected
to hold its first meeting on May 25 or May 26.
He further said his wife Ilina has received some
communication from the Plan panel in this regard as he is out
of Raipur.
"We have appointed Binayak Sen as member of the
steering committee on health to advice for 12th Plan. It was
Planning Commission`s proposal to appoint him," Plan panel
Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters here.
"He (Sen) has been taken on board of the committee. I
am not sure whether he has agreed to it or not. I have not
seen his response yet," Member Planning Commission on Health,
Syeda Hameed said earlier in the day.
She said that Sen has been appointed on the important
committee as "he has worked in the area of malnutrition in
tribal children".
"We need his input on malnutrition in tribal children
while formulating the 12th Plan," she added.
The 61-year old rights activist, a paediatrician, has
worked in Chhattisgarh`s tribal belt.
He has been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges
of sedition and links with Naxalites by a lower court. The
Supreme Court granted him bail in April after which he was
released from Raipur Jail.
Sen, the Vice-president of People`s Union of Civil
Liberties, was sentenced to life imprisonment along with Naxal
ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha
for colluding with the Maoists to establish a network to fight
the state.
His conviction and sentence had led to an outrage in
many quarters, including international human rights bodies.
PTI
