Aam Aadmi Clinics

Aam Aadmi Clinics are free neighbourhood health clinics set up by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, modelled on Delhi's mohalla clinics. At the first launch Mann said each clinic would offer about 100 kinds of tests and free medicines, with four staff including an MBBS doctor and a laboratory technician. Before the 2022 election AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said Punjab would need 16,000 mohalla clinics, one for every village. The Tribune noted in March 2023 that 500 had been opened.

How it is run: The clinics are part of the state's health system. Many are existing buildings, such as Sewa Kendras, or health and wellness centres that were renovated or renamed, which is the opposition's main criticism.

Key moments

• 15 August 2022: Mann dedicates 75 clinics at Ludhiana. Answering opposition criticism of the conversion of Sewa Kendra buildings, he says they had been lying in shambles and were renovated.
• 27 January 2023: Mann and Kejriwal dedicate 400 more at Amritsar, making 500. Opposition parties call it a publicity stunt with old facilities renamed, and Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring asks why the clinics carry the chief minister's photograph. The Tribune later wrote that staff were moved from rural and urban health institutions in a hasty launch, and also that regular medicines and free diagnostics had given the health service new energy.
• February 2023: the Union Health Ministry tells Punjab it will hold back about Rs 546 crore of National Health Mission (NHM) money, because the state renamed Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres as Aam Aadmi Clinics and put the chief minister's photograph on them, against its agreement with the Centre.
• 13 August 2024: The Tribune reports that Punjab has lost Rs 933.16 crore of NHM grants in two years. Of Rs 457.9 crore allocated for 2023-24 it received Rs 91.49 crore, and of Rs 588.8 crore for 2024-25 only Rs 22.05 crore so far. Mann says talks with the Centre are on.
• 13 November 2024: the two governments reportedly agree that the clinics will be renamed and the chief minister's photograph removed from their logo, with about Rs 650 crore expected. About 870 clinics existed, about half of them outside the Health Department's jurisdiction.
• 23 January 2025: clinics working under the NHM are rebranded as Ayushman Arogya Kendras, and Punjab has received about Rs 190 crore of roughly Rs 1,200 crore held up since 2023.
• 28 March 2026: Mann and Kejriwal inaugurate 109 more clinics, taking the total to 990, and Mann announces about 400 more.

Where it stands: The clinics keep running, some under the new names. The numbers above are those reported by The Tribune; the totals for clinics opened are the government's own.