Centre releases first instalment of ₹123 crore to Punjab under NHM

A long-standing deadlock between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government in Punjab and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government the name of the state’s health and wellness clinics (HWCs) finally came to an end with the Union government on Tuesday releasing the first instalment of ₹123 crore from the National Health Mission (NHM) funds.

The bone of contention between the two sides was the Punjab government’s decision to name the HWCs as Aam Aadmi Clinics (AAC), which would also have the photo of chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The Centre had objected to this and, thus, withheld funds for at least a year-and-a-half.

The funds were finally released on Tuesday after the Punjab government, in an apparent reversal of its previous stand, agreed to remove picture of chief minister Bhagwant Mann on the clinics and agreed to rename the clinic as Ayushman Arogya Kendra, according to a senior health department functionary. He said the letter regarding the sanction of the first instalment was received on Tuesday evening.

The first instalment of ₹123 crore (out of a total ₹765 crore due for 2024-25 for the state under NHM) was released on Tuesday.

Now, the Centre will do its own branding on these clinics, the senior official quoted above said.

The consensus was achieved after fresh deliberations took place in the matter with the intervention of Union health minister Jagat Parkash Nadda, who, the officials cited above said, had “positive discussions” on the issue with Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh.

The central government originally wanted to rename the HCWs as Ayushman Arogya Mandir, but the state government objected to the use of the word “mandir” and instead preferred the word “kendra”. Eventually, Centre agreed to the state’s request, an official privy with the developments said.

The state has also agreed to remove the photo of Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann from the more than 600 HCWs in the state.

However, the officials cited above said that the state would continue to use Mann’s picture on health clinics that were set up by the state’s own funds.

In February 2023, the Centre had stopped funds meant for NHM to Punjab alleging that the Bhagwant Mann-led government was branding centrally sponsored HWCs as AACs.

Since then, Centre had not released funds amounting to ₹621 crores – the share Centre had to bear for running NHM programmes with Punjab as per the agreed upon 60:40 split, according to a senior Punjab health department official.

After Centre stopped the funds, the Punjab officials cited above said, the state was forced to spend more than ₹700 crore from its own coffers over the past one-and-a-half years.

Since August 2017, the Punjab government claimed to have set-up 881 Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) in the state to deliver primary healthcare services. Out of these, around 600 were HWCs that derived 60% of their funds from Centre’s NHM. Hindustan Times