50 lakh persons screened in 25 days in Kanti Velugu across Telangana

The second phase of the Kanti Velugu initiative, which was launched by Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao on January 18 at Khammam

Hyderabad: In a span of just 25 working days, Telangana government’s free mass eye screening initiative Kanti Velugu on Thursday completed screening of 50 lakh individuals.

The second phase of the Kanti Velugu initiative, which was launched by Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao on January 18 at Khammam, is on track to achieve the target of screening a total of 1.5 crore individuals at 16,533 different locations in 100 working days.

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Dubbed as world’s largest free eye screening initiative, Telangana government is targeting to complete Kanti Velugu-II by June 15. Out of the 50 lakh individuals who underwent screening, around 34 lakh (68 per cent) did not have any eye related ailments while 16 lakh persons needed some medical intervention.

The eye screening camps essentially cover basic eye screening tests, on the spot distribution of reading glasses, diagnosis of common eye related ailments and distribution of prescription glasses in a period of one to two weeks.

Out of the 16 lakh persons needing medical treatment, a total of 9.5 lakh persons received reading glasses while 6.5 lakh persons received prescription glasses. The prescription glasses that were advised by the technical team will be handed over to the beneficiaries in the districts through the local field level healthcare workers including ASHA and ANMs.

Kanti Velugu Phase II at a glance:

Total screened: 50 lakh

Number of working days: 25

People with no eye related issues: 34 lakh

People needing reading glasses: 9.5 lakh

People advised prescription glasses: 6.5 lakh