Berhampur, June 11: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated Sankara Eye Hospital in Samarjhola village under Hinjilicut block here.

The hospital is a branch of Sankara Nethralaya, based in Chennai.

"The hospital will provide quality eye care to the rural people of Ganjam and surrounding districts," Naveen said.

"Our government is trying to provide good health care facilities to the rural people of Odisha and this hospital is a milestone in this regard," he said.

Naveen, who hails from Ganjam and contests elections from Hinjili constituency, said about his government's success in the sector: "We conducted vision test of six lakh students last year and provided spectacles to 30,000 out of them."

Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, who was present at the event, said: "We are taking measures to reach the national index of National Programme for Control of Blindness."

"We have selected 22 boys and girls as vision care assistant and another 15 local residents for other assignments at the hospital. They were trained at the Chennai unit of Sankara Nethralaya," said hospital trustee and secretary S. Visvanathan.

"We have also appointed a senior eye surgeon with 17 years of experience in cataract, glaucoma and other allied subjects. We have also appointed another surgeon with speciality in retina care. Both of them underwent familiarisation training in Chennai for three months," said Sankara Nethralaya Ganjam unit CEO Arabinda Mohanty. "We chose Ganjam because 1.4 per cent people here suffer from unwanted blindness, while the national average is 1 per cent. We will carry out camps in the surrounding panchayat areas and select patients for surgery at the hospital free of cost. In addition, there will be some paid departments where any patient affected by eye problems can walk in for treatment," Mohanty said.

The hospital was set with support from Tata Steel and its managing director T.V. Narendran was present on the occasion.