Chandigarh, Nov 13 (IANS): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Wednesday said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s hunger for publicity had resulted in the denial of health services through health and wellness clinics and the release of Rs 765 crore to the state for more than one year.

He said more than Rs 100 crore spent by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on wasteful expenditure be recovered from the Chief Minister.

In a statement here, Majithia said the Chief Minister resisted the Union government’s demand to remove his picture from the centrally-funded health and family clinics for one and half years.

“This not only made the clinics redundant for one year but also resulted in wasteful allocation of staff for the clinics and degeneration of health services in the rural areas.”

Asserting that the Punjab and Punjabis had suffered in the entire process, Majithia said the AAP had squandered more than Rs 100 crore on advertisements to project the Aam Aadmi Clinic scheme, besides holding a state-level function to inaugurate them.

Besides, the Chief Minister’s picture was put up across the state on boards to project the Aam Aadmi Clinic scheme as part of a self-promotion exercise. “This amount should be recovered from the Chief Minister,” he asserted.

The SAD leader also called for a review of the entire health infrastructure, saying the entire sector was in disarray.

“Today the situation is that there are neither any medicines nor any provisions to conduct various tests in government hospitals or adequate doctors or paramedical staff. The AAP government promised to open medical colleges in each district but is unable to run mohalla-level clinics even as all civil hospitals and medical colleges are unable to provide basic medical services to the people,” he added.