PASIGHAT, Jan 4: The fifth National Blindness Survey in East Siang district began here on Thursday.
The survey is being conducted by a 24-member team of experts headed by Prof Praveen Vashist, Head, Community Ophthalmology from RP Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, while Dr Taba Khanna, State Programme Officer, National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCB&VI), is closely supervising the survey work.
East Siang is the 27th district in the country which was selected for such survey under the initiative of the NPCB&VI for determining the blindness burden in the country.
During the house-to-house survey and enumeration, the team will examine the eyesight of persons above 50 years of age.
Since Arunachal Pradesh is the second highest blindness-prevalent state in the country, this survey is very significant in determining the actual causes of blindness. Major eye care policies will be evolved by the central government after the submission of the survey report, according to a release.
