The Mamata Banerjee government will enable 20 lakh cataract surgeries and distribute 8.25 lakh spectacles, both free of cost, in the next five years under the new Chokher Alo scheme that aims to provide eye health for all in Bengal.

“We are launching a new initiative — Chokher Alo — from tomorrow (Tuesday) for a period of five years. During this period, we will conduct 20 lakh cataract surgeries and distribute 8.25 lakh spectacles free of cost. This will help us eradicate vision impairment in the state,” said Mamata at Nabanna on Monday.

The chief minister also announced that students of all schools and colleges would undergo free eye check-up under the scheme and 4 lakh spectacles in all would be distributed to them in the course of the next five years.

Chokher Alo starts from Tuesday in 1,200 gram panchayats and 120 urban health centres, Mamata said, and eye camps will be held in these areas with more than 300 ophthalmologists working in tandem.

Roughly, some 11 per cent people are blind and over 4 per cent have low vision from among 18 lakh specially abled persons in Bengal.

“The number of persons with low vision must be much higher as elderly people from remote areas hardly have money and resources to visit an ophthalmologist,” said a senior health official.

The scheme, sources said, would benefit the poor and aged especially from remote areas as the state will set up camps in their localities.

“People who visit camps would first undergo a vision test. Those with severe vision problems would be checked for the reason. If it is cataract, the state government will organise surgery for them. People from financially weaker sections will get preference for the free surgery,” said a source.

If the reason for low vision is something else, the person concerned would be referred to nearby hospitals. “As all people in Bengal would have Swasthya Sathi (state government sponsored health insurance) cards by the next few months, patients referred to nearby hospitals would not face much trouble in getting treatment,” said an official.

Some officials said the initiative was taken when people’s enthusiasm to register under state government schemes at Duare Sarkar camps became visible.

A Trinamul insider said the chief minister was leaving no stone unturned to reach out to those in remote areas ahead of the 2021 polls. “The BJP is campaigning that the state government deprived people by not implementing Ayushman Bharat, a medical insurance scheme of the Centre. We are countering that through Swasthya Sathi. But eye check-up camps at gram panchayat level would help us ahead of the polls,” said a ruling party MLA.