As Centre stops funds, Punjab pumps ₹50 cr a month for National Health Mission initiatives
The Centre has not released funds to the tune of ₹621 crore since Feb 2023 even though it is supposed to bear 60% of the expenses as per NHM funding pattern
It’s been almost a year since the Centre stopped National Health Mission (NHM) funds to Punjab following a tussle over branding of Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) but the issue has still not been resolved. The result: The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is left with no option but to pump ₹50-55 crore a month from its own kitty to keep the NHM programmes afloat.
The Centre had stopped NHM funds to Punjab in February 2023, claiming that the Mann government was branding centrally sponsored health and wellness schemes as AACs. (HT File)
The Centre had stopped NHM funds to Punjab in February 2023, claiming that the Mann government was branding centrally sponsored health and wellness schemes as AACs.
Since then, the Centre has not released funds to the tune of ₹621 crore even though it is supposed to bear 60% of the expenses as per the NHM funding pattern, a senior health department functionary of Punjab said.
The official added that the state had also offered to tweak the branding and add the Centre’s flagship scheme, Ayushman Bharat, on the AAC facade but to no avail.
The official revealed that CM Mann has now made it clear that there would be no more deliberations with the Centre on the issue.
A senior NHM official said that so far, the Punjab government has spent almost ₹700 crore this year on NHM programmes.
“The state government has been kind enough to sanction money for running various programmes. We are not sure what’s in store for the next year,” the NHM official said.
State mulling its own health programme?
A senior health department official disclosed that deliberations are on at the department-level to boycott the NHM and launch Punjab’s own state-level programme.
“But the problem is that the state doesn’t have its own health roadmap or policy. NHM runs various programmes for maternal health, child health, immunisation, adolescent health, family planning, vector-borne diseases, TB control etc. Since we don’t have our own guidelines, we are bound to follow the Centre’s parameters which are further connected to World Health Organisation (WHO). Any deviation from Centre’s plan would need a whole new roadmap,” a senior official said.
Punjab health and family welfare minister Dr Balbir Singh said the Centre is unnecessarily dragging the issue. “We are pumping over ₹50 crore a month as we don’t want the NHM programmes to suffer.”
On the Centre’s allegations over the branding of AACs, the health minister said, “At most, we used only 10% of the health and wellness centres to set up AACs and that too, when we were spending 40% on the Centre’s scheme. I am sure naming of the centres is not the only reason behind withholding our grants; the Centre has a bias against our government.”
On the way forward, the health minister said his government will take the matter before the public during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“They had also withheld our rural development funds, citing that the state should first enact a law on how to spend the money. Our government enacted the law in Vidhan Sabha. Even then our grants have not been released,” said Dr Balbir Singh.
In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on not releasing NHM funds to Punjab, Minister of State (MoS) for health Bharati Pravin Pawar had said in December last year, “Punjab has branded the centres as Aam Aadmi Clinic (AAC) instead of Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centre (now, Ayushman Arogya Mandir), thereby violating the provisions of the pact signed between the Union health ministry and the state.”
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