Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated another 45 community vision centres in 13 districts across the country.
The newly opened centres pushed the total number of community vision centres to 135. At least one-third of the people at the grassroots level will have access to free eye care at the centres, reports bdnews24.com.
The inaugural ceremony was held at the National Opthalmology Institute in Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Wednesday, state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reports. The prime minister joined the event via video conferencing.
The community vision centres in Bhola's Char Fasson, Barguna's Amtali, Chattogram's Bashkhali and Cox's Bazar's Pekua upazilas were connected to the prime minister's video link as Hasina spoke to local beneficiaries after the inauguration.
Barishal and Chattogram divisions each received 20 of the new vision centres, while four were opened in Rajshahi and one in Khulna.
Earlier, Hasina inaugurated 90 vision centres in two phases to provide modern optical treatment to people for free under the 'ground-breaking' initiative, according to the BSS.
More than 1.3 million people received treatment at the community vision centres, and another 210,868 got free eyeglasses.
A documentary about the free treatment provided at the community vision centres was also screened at the event.