This approval comes after years of friction between the state and central governments over health funding. The revised budget marks a strategic shift in Punjab’s public health priorities toward focused interventions in nutrition, mental health, and disease control, especially within a restricted fiscal environment. With the latest release, Punjab’s total NHM budget for 2025–26 now stands at ₹1,841.65 crore, combining both existing and newly sanctioned funds.
A major share of the supplementary funds — ₹19.31 crore — has been earmarked for the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme that provides monthly nutritional support to TB patients. In addition, ₹2.82 crore will support state-specific TB innovations, including enhanced community engagement and Jan Bhagidari-based awareness drives.
As per the recent media reports by TOI, the National Deworming Day campaign has also received a boost, with Rs 55.3 lakh allocated for the procurement of Albendazole tablets aimed at treating more than 22.8 lakh children aged 1 to 19 years across the state. Another Rs 49.3 lakh has been sanctioned under the Tele-MANAS initiative — the govt's national mental health helpline project. The funds will cover salaries for essential mental health professionals such as a Senior Consultant, Counsellors, Psychiatric Social Workers, and Clinical Psychologists, along with operational costs for running the state-level Tele-MANAS cell in Punjab.
While these new allocations provide a welcome boost to crucial health sectors, officials clarified that they come as part of a fund reallocation. The supplementary funds are offset by an equal surrender of ₹23.22 crore from earlier NHM allocations that went unutilized. These unspent funds included savings from TB diagnostics, civil infrastructure, procurement for drug-resistant and latent TB, and non-communicable disease (NCD) screening equipment.
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According to TOI, officials clarified that the overall NHM resource envelope for Punjab remains unchanged, with the supplementary approvals matched rupee-for-rupee by the surrendered funds. The adjustments are part of the Union health ministry's strategy to allow states to reallocate resources mid-cycle in response to evolving health needs and program performance.
The latest cooperation follows a period of strained relations between Punjab and the Centre over the branding of Ayushman Arogya Kendras as Aam Aadmi Clinics. Disputes arose in 2022–24 after the Punjab government chose to rebrand Ayushman Arogya Kendras as Aam Aadmi Clinics, prompting the Centre to suspend NHM funds worth ₹112 crore for 2022–23 and ₹366.41 crore for 2023–24 — nearly the entire central allocation of ₹457.90 crore.
The impasse was finally resolved in November 2024 when both parties agreed to revert to the Ayushman Arogya Kendra branding in line with national guidelines. By January 2025, the renaming process was completed, which involved wall paintings, standardised signage, and logo installations at clinics across the state.
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