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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Vinod Kumar | TNN

Congress hits out at Punjab govt over Aam Aadmi Clinics

CHANDIGARH: Slamming the Punjab government for converting existing health centres into Aam Aadmi Clinics, the Congress said the Bhagwant Mann-led dispensation appeared to be more interested in gaining political popularity rather than actually working on improving the health services in the state, which had deteriorated in the last 10 months.

The Punjab government on Friday inaugurated 400 more Aam Aadmi Clinics, taking the overall count of such facilities in the state to 500. Flaying the Mann government, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said “superficial and half-hearted” measures would not be sufficient to improve the health services and turn Punjab into “a rangla (prosperous) Punjab”.

“In fact, such superfluous steps, only to change the outer appearance of the state-run dispensaries and hospitals which have been bereft of doctors, equipment and medicines, will make Punjab gandhla (ugly) rather than rangla,” said Bajwa, the leader of the opposition in the Punjab assembly.

He further said instead of working on improving the existing system, the AAP government was spending crores of rupees of the state exchequer to convert primary health centres (PHCs) into mohalla clinics by making them look good from the outside.

“The Bhagwant Mann government should have rather first addressed the shortcomings,” said Bajwa as he accused the government of creating a “false hype” by issuing misleading advertisements worth crores of rupees.

“Former health secretary Ajoy Sharma, who did not agree to release advertisements worth crores, was shunted out of his department overnight,” he alleged.

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring described Aam Aadmi Clinics as “old wine in a new bottle”. He slammed the government for renaming Bhai Sahib Singh Satellite Hospital, Fatehpur, to Aam Aadmi Clinic and called the move as “most unfortunate”.

“No true Punjabi can dare to make such a big blunder. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann must roll back the decision at the earliest,” he said.

Chairman, All India Kisan Congress, Sukhpal Singh Khaira raised an objection to naming the clinics after the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. In a statement, Khaira asked the CM to change the name of clinics to “government clinics” from “Aam Aadmi” clinics.

Khaira said whether these clinics were really serving any benefit to the people was debatable, these clinics certainly promoted the Aam Aadmi Party. “The way the boards are displayed makes these clinics look more like the Aam Aadmi Party offices than health facilities. It is clear misuse and abuse of the state resources to promote the ruling political party, which is unprecedented and unacceptable,” he said.

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