Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday launched the third phase of the mass eye screening programme 'YSR Kanti Velugu' in Kurnool.
The Chief Minister also launched ''Naadu-Nedu'', an ambitious programme to renovate all government hospitals right from village sub-centres to teaching hospitals in three phases and improve infrastructure in the next three years.
A sum of Rs 15,335 crore would be spent on this massive programme, Jagan said on the occasion.
A total of 56,88,424 people in the 60-plus age group will be covered in this phase of the programme, under which interventions like primary eye screening, prescription of spectacles, supply of essential medicines to needy patients, referral for cataract surgeries and referral for tertiary eye care management will be undertaken.
The Rs 560 crore ''Kanti Velugu'' scheme was launched on October 10 last year to rectify the vision defects of over 2.12 crore people in the state.
It will be implemented in six phases spread over three years. Under Phase-I, 66,15,467 students of 60,401 schools were covered.
In the preliminary screening, 4,36,979 children were identified with eye problems.
In the second phase, 1,34,252 children with vision defects were identified for distribution of spectacles, but so far only 56,767 were distributed while another 77,485 "are under process", according to information provided by the Chief Minister''s Office.
Phase-3 of the programme will be conducted till July 31, 2020 to cover the targeted 56.88 lakh people.
In all, 500 teams from government and private eye hospitals have been identified to conduct the secondary eye screening in the villages.