IANS NEW DELHI PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said every citizen should have access to affordable health care and asked citizens to take a pledge to look after their health.

In a message on World Health Day, the prime minister said a healthy population was essential for the development of the country.

“Our government aims to give all our citizens the opportunity of leading a happy life and become productive citizens.

A healthy population is essential for the development of the country. That is why our government believes that every citizen should have access to affordable health care,” the prime minister said.

He said the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched by the government, aims to provide health care to every corner of rural India. “Let us together pledge to look after our health and make full use of the health facilities provided by the government,” the prime minister said.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad launched a health magazine programme to mark World Health Day. The health magazine programme, Swasth Bharat (healthy India), will be telecast through 30 regional kendras of Doordarshan and 29 stations of All India Radio across 27 states.

According to an official spokesman, the health magazine will be telecast for five days a week in regional languages at prime time to empower citizens with information on health issues.

“The programme is expected to help government for developing an efficient and effective health care delivery system by creating a demand for better health care services,” the spokesperson said.

He said health and family welfare is the first ministry to have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Prasar Bharati to start such an outreach programme to reach a wide spectrum of the population through mass media.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, a voluntary group working for Pakistani refugees in India has requested Prime Minister Singh to raise the problems of Hindus living in Pakistan with visiting President Asif Ali Zardari who is coming to India on Sunday, a representative said.

The Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS) on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the prime minister’s office and drew attention to the alleged religious persecution of Hindus in Pakistan “Till date, this migration is continuing, in spite of the fencing of the whole border since the 1990s. These people are coming to India with valid documents like passport and visa. After coming to India, they apply for the residential permission to stay in India,” Hindu Singh Sodha, president, Seemant Lok Sangathan, said.

Most of them had settled in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and MP.

“These people have requested the Indian government that due to religious persecution in Pakistan, they do not want to go back,” said Sodha.

He also requested Zardari to look into these issues seriously.

Zardari will be on a sixhour visit to Delhi and Ajmer’s shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti on Sunday.