After filing his nomination papers for election to the Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra on Tuesday, Mahatme told the media that he runs the biggest charitable hospital in Nagpur, through his SMM Eye Welfare Charitable Trust.
After performing over one lakh eye surgeries and training more than 1,500 surgeons, including 500 foreigners, Dr Vikas Mahatme is all set to enter the Rajya Sabha as BJP MP. If elected, Mahatme plans to raise the demand for reservation for the Dhangar community and to propagate his model of charity, which does not involves any aid from the government.
After filing his nomination papers for election to the Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra on Tuesday, Mahatme told the media that he runs the biggest charitable hospital in Nagpur, through his SMM Eye Welfare Charitable Trust.
The Padmashree awardee also runs a hospital in Mumbai's Mulund and is trying his hands on a new project in Pune, along with 50 other doctors.
Mahatme's trust works in Amravati as well as Armmori in Gadchiroli. He also started the first eye bank in Nagpur. His wife Dr Sunita Mahatme is a gynaecologist, while their son is pursuing MBBS in Nagpur.
Mahatme, who at one point used to perform 20-25 surgeries in a single day, later shifted his focus solely to imparting surgery training to others. He said his hospital and training centre was run on the basis of cross-subsidising, and offered 55% discount. He said it was not difficult to run a hospital on a charitable basis for a long period, and that he developed this model of cross-subsidising with private patients.
In addition to pleading the case for reservation for Dhangars, Mahatme said he will also insist on the need to impart life skills to people, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggestions. He said he runs an Institute of Science of Happiness and believed in the fact that no party in the country should be against the larger public interest.
Though he has worked for a few RSS camps in the past, Mahatme made it clear that he was not a Swayamsevak, and that he was chosen as a candidate because Union minister Nitin Gadkari and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis have been aware of his work for years now.
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 "Dr Vikas Mahatme with wife Dr Sunita Mahatme")
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