Chhattisgarh govt protests against Binayak Sen's nomination to Planning Commission panel

The nomination of rights activist Binayak Sen as a member of the Planning Commission's steering committee on health has not gone down well with the Chhattisgarh government, which today announced its ministers would "skip" all meetings of the panel to protest the move.

"Chief minister Raman Singh and his cabinet colleagues have decided to skip all meetings of the Planning Commission over the nomination of convicted Binayak Sen as a member of the plan panel committee on health," a terse statement of the Chhattisgarh government said.

Sen was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court which observed that no case of sedition was made out against the activist, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh court for alleged links with Naxals.

The steering committee on health will review the National Health Policy, 2002, and explore the possibility of adopting the Right to Health as an approach with special focus on women, children, life-cycle care and preventive and curative health care.