Scouting different districts of the State for last two weeks, personnel from Odisha police and Women & Child Development Department in a joint effort under the Operation Smile-II have rescued 122 missing children.
These children have been handed over either to their legal guardians or sent to child care institutes, said a Press release issued by the Crime Branch here on Saturday.
The release said one girl child missing from Jammu and Kashmir and another from Madhya Pradesh were rescued from Puri and Sundargarh districts, respectively, and both have been handed over to the concerned authorities of their States.
As part of the operation, the teams would now focus on outside States for next two weeks to rescue children missing from the State. Ten teams have already left for different destinations in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The month-long drive was launched on January 1. Considering the gravity of the social problem, the Operation Smile was launched last year following directions from the Union Home Ministry. Over 900 missing children were rescued and rehabilitated in the State in 2015.