Complete Kanti Velugu scheme within 100 working days: Harish Rao

The minister stated that 1,500 additional teams were being formed for the smooth conduct of the programme.

Nizamabad: Health Minister T Harish Rao directed officials to make elaborate arrangements for the successful implementation of the second phase of ‘Kanti Velugu’ scheme being launched from January 18 across the State. Harish Rao, who held a review meeting on the implementation of the ‘Kanti Velugu’ scheme with district collectors, additional collectors, DMHOs and officials of other departments, through video conference on Tuesday, asked the officials to prepare a detailed plan to complete the programme within 100 working days.

The minister stated that 1,500 additional teams were being formed for the smooth conduct of the Kanti Velugu programme. He said that a plan should be prepared in advance in consultation with peoples’ representatives on which day in which ward and in which village panchayats the camp should be organised. He said that the reading glasses along with the materials required for the camps would be sent to districts in advance. He asked officials to provide reading glasses to the needy on the day of the eye examination itself.

Harish stated that before commencement of the Kanti Velugu camps, a joint meeting of the ministers, MLAs and officials of the relevant departments should be organised so that all the aspects related to the programme were taken care of. He informed that arrangements have been made to upload the details of those with distance vision glasses in the relevant App and within a fortnight according to the details, the required eyeglasses would be sent to the districts.

Meanwhile, Nizamabad additional collector B Chandrasekhar said that 70 teams were being formed across the district for the conduct of Kanti Velugu camps. He further stated that each team would have a total of eight members consisting of one medical officer, one optometrist officer, data entry operator, two ANMs and three Asha workers. He said that each team will conduct screening for 118 people in Gram Panchayat and 110 people in urban areas.

The first phase of the scheme was launched on August 15, 2018, and ran for a year. It benefited 23.43 lakh people, at a cost of Rs 200 crore.