Chandigarh: The Punjab government led by chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s campaign to change the name of health clinics to Aam Aadmi Clinics has received sharp reactions from the Centre as it has threaten to stop funding to the state.
Reacting to the Central government’s decision to withhold the next instalment of Rs 546 crore under the National Health Mission (NHM) due to renaming of health wellness clinics as Aam Aadmi Clinics, senior Akali leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the entire health sector of the state would suffer huge losses if a grant of Rs 546 crore was not released to the state under the NHM.
Cheema said that by running a campaign to change the name at an expensive price, the AAP government has destroyed the health infrastructure by renaming rural dispensaries as Aam Aadmi Clinics. Primary and community health centres are in a bad shape, he said.
To satisfy the minds of the leadership, doctors working in hospitals were graded and shifted to Aam Aadmi Clinics and emergency services were terminated.
The Akali leader said the existing health services have been affected due to non-recruitment of staff in the clinics. He said that the clinics have been set up using the funds of NHM projects elsewhere, which will have a fatal impact on NHM employees and will face problems in payment of salaries of employees.