Days after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya slammed the Punjab government alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party has created healthcare facilities with different name Aam Aadmi Clinics by utilising Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY) funds, Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Wednesday termed Mandaviya’s charge as “frivolous and baseless”.

Addressing a Press conference, Dr Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was baffled by Punjab’s health revolution and the Union health minister is trying to mislead the people by lying about the health system of the state.  Citing figures, the minister accused the Central government of step-motherly treatment and giving insufficient funds.

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He said for the National Health Mission, the Central government has to pay 60 per cent of the money and the states have to invest 4 per cent. “For this, out of the total Rs 1,114 Crore, the Center had to give Rs 668 Crore, but the Central government sanctioned only Rs 438 Crore. Likewise, the Punjab government was to spend Rs 445 Crore but the government had spent Rs 618 Crore,” Dr Singh added.

Questioning the intention of the Union minister, the Punjab minister said, “The Centre gave less than 40 per cent of the money and we spent more than 60 per cent,” he said adding the health system of Punjab is number one in the country.

“After the formation of the AAP government in Punjab under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, there have been revolutionary changes in the health system and the condition of health facilities has improved tremendously,” Dr Singh claimed.

“During the previous governments, there were no proper doctors, medicines, and no tests in health centres. Apart from this, there were many scams in the health department including a sanitizer and mask scam, which led to loss of crores of rupees to the government exchequer. At the same time, after the formation of the AAP government, doctors are sitting regularly in the Aam Aadmi Clinic and examining hundreds of doctors daily,” he said.

The minister said pharmacists and lab technicians are present in the clinics. Patients are being treated well. Medicines are available and more than 40 types of tests are being done at free of cost. The number of OPDs has also increased almost four times compared to earlier, he added.

Dr Singh said when the Central government did not find any issue of shortage in Aam Aadmi Clinics, it was questioning its branding.  He said  during the Captain Amarinder Sigh-led previous government, the branding of ‘Ayush Bima Yojana’ was done by putting the Captain’s name and his picture.

The minister challenged the Union health minister to send Central teams to both Punjab and BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and get health facilities examined.

Dr Singh said in the coming days, the AAP government will launch the Farishta scheme in Punjab. “Under this, if a person unfortunately met with a road accident, then any person can take him to the nearest hospital. All the expenses of the treatment will be borne by the Punjab government,” he added.