Nearly 1 crore people tested under Kanti Velugu

Hyderabad: The Kanti Velugu programme aimed at avoiding the controllable blindness would be achieving the milestone of one crore screenings in a couple of days as the health staff has so far screened over 96.7 lakh people in the medical camps in the State in 47 days.

According to the officials, eye glasses were given to 15.65 lakh people till date under the Kanti Velugu program. The programme started with the slogan of 'Blindness Free Telangana' is continuing successfully across the State.

The programme started on January 18. In the second phase, a total of 96,07,764 people have been examined in 47 working days and 60.55 percent of the target has been reached.

This includes 45 lakh males, 50 lakh females and 3,112 transgender. Reading glasses were distributed to 15.65 lakh people while prescription glasses were identified for 11.68 lakh people and 68.73 lakh people were diagnosed without any eye problems. On August 15, 2018, the first phase of Kanti Velugu was launched in Malkapur of Medak district and continued for eight months. Free eye tests were conducted to 1.5crore people and 50 lakh spectacles were distributed.

The people who come to these camps express their happiness and praised the government for the programme. The programme would continue till June 15. Out of 12,789 Gram Panchayats in the State, 52 per cent of the target of Kanti Velugu has been achieved so far in 6,567 Gram Panchayats. Another 946 Gram Panchayats are nearing the target.

The second phase has set a target of conducting eye tests to 1.70 crore people in 100 working days. Medical officials said that there were good chances of reaching the planned target of 1 crore eye tests so far.

Likewise, if the programme continues in this way, it is possible to conduct Kanti Velugu tests to two crore people.