Despite the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) rapping the Punjab government for forgoing central grants under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) due to its refusal to remove pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from emergency 108 ambulances, the state has decided to continue to retain the pictures in the current fiscal. The CAG in its recent report stated that the state had to do without Rs 23.8 crore of central grant for ambulances over three fiscals from 2012 after refusing to follow a prescribed uniform colour code of the NRHM. But a senior official of the Punjab government claimed that the money, under NRHM in the current fiscal, would be released to the state as a lump-sum without earmarked allocations, and it was the state’s prerogative to use it for any scheme. [related-post] At a recent meeting of NRHM, the state health department was told that as per the practice followed previously any state not following the uniform colour coding for the ambulances would not be given central grant. CM’s pictures on ambulances have been a bone of contention between the state and the Centre since the UPA regime. Mission Director of NRHM, Punjab, Hussan Lal did not comment on the CAG’s report. But laying out the outlook for the current fiscal, he claimed that the state will not lose any funds ‘technically’ by putting pictures of CM on ambulances and an amount of Rs 645 crore — 20 per cent higher than the previous year’s allocation — would be released to the government. It was expecting an outlay of around Rs 645 crore. It was up to the government to use the grant on priority for any scheme, he said and added that so far there has been no communication from the Centre regarding approval or rejection of any activity.
