Binayak agrees to join Plan panel committee on health

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New Delhi, May 11 : Agreeing to join the Planning Commission''s steering committee on health after being appointed by the government, civil rights activist Binayak Sen today 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 PTI 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.