Fourteen children aged up to 18 and 55 women who have gone missing remain untraced in Pauri district. Since the creation of Uttarakhand in 2000, 28 children had gone missing and out of these, 13 went back home till now and one was traced during the Operation Smile. However, district police have found eight children hailing from another district in course of the operation.
As things stand now, 14 children — eight boys and six girls — still figure in the missing list in Pauri district. Out of 295 women gone missing from 2000 to 2014 in the district, 240 have been found and 55 are yet to be traced.
Superintendent of Police Ajaya Joshi said Pauri police have recovered one child, missing from Pauri district, and eight, missing from other districts, were recovered during Operation Smile. Efforts are on to recover the remaining, he said.
He further said that verification drive or migrants coming in the district is in progress and 1234 persons have been verified since January 1 till now- 146 of Pauri Kotwali, 88 of Satpuli Thana, 18 of Dhumakot, four of Rekhinikhal, 531 of Srinagar Thana, six of Devprayag Thana, 91 of laxmanjhula, 284 of Kotdwar Kotwali, 28 of Kalagarh and 45 of lansdowne Thana.
Joshi appealed to the house owners of the district to cooperate with police in the verification drive and asked the tenants to have their identity verified in the concerned police station. If tenants are not verified as per the norms action will be taken against the house owners under section 52 (2) of Police Act 2007.
It is pertinent to mention that the crimes in the rural areas are on the rise with the criminals mostly coming from outside and staying for a short period. Police have launched verification drive in the regular police jurisdiction areas, but in the revenue police area, nothing is being done. Most of the women figuring in the missing list are from the revenue police areas. They might have been abducted for human trafficking, it is believed.