Telangana: Kanti Velugu to light up 2 crore lives

Hyderabad: More than 1.54 crore people in the State have undergone eye-test screening and spectacles have been provided to over 21.85 lakh people under the State government’s ambitious Kanti Velugu programme which aims to eradicate controllable blindness in the State.

The officials said that if the implementation of the scheme and people’s participation keeps going at the same rate, then over 2 crore people can be screened by June 15.

According to the officials, the KantiVeluguprogrammeof Telangana government was continuing successfully with 1,54,58,982 people undergoing eye tests till date. The reading glasses were given to 21,85,945 people. So far, the programme has been completed in 11,862 Gram Panchayat Wards and 3,495 Municipal Wards.

The Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had started the first phase on August 15, 2018 in Medak district to correct vision defects. The program lasted for eight months. Free eye screenings were conducted for 1.50 crore people. Spectacles have been distributed to 50 lakh people. In the same spirit, the Chief Minister started the second phase of KantiVelugu program in Khammam on January 18 last.

It is continuing successfully as per the planned objective. In 84 working days 92.75 percent of people got eye tests in the State.

The government has decided to complete the eye tests for all in the State within the target of 100 working days. For monitoring, the government has formed quality control teams at the state level and district level. The Medical officials expressed the opinion that if the eye tests program continues in this way, there is a possibility of the figure going beyond 2 crore people.