State Director General of Police MA Ganapathy stressed on the police tracing the missing children, particularly, the girls, as registered in the records of the missing during the next chapter of the Operation Smile to be launched for a month from June 1.
He said this while inaugurating the state- level day- long workshop related to Operation Smile at the police headquarters on Monday.
“It is our duty to trace the children severed from their parents. We must reunite them with their dear and near ones at the earliest,” the state’s top cop said while addressing the district nodal officers of Operation Smile.
Team members were directed to work in coordination with social welfare and child welfare departments while executing the directions of the Human Rights Commission and Women Commission during the month the operation would be on.
Additioanl SP(crime and law and order) at PHQ Sahjahan Javed Khan who conducted the workshop informed that the numbers of missing children till April 2017 are 418 and a total of 27 teams comprising 164 police personnel have been formed to conduct drives to trace them under the present chapter of Operation Smile.
She said that the each team comprises one sub-inspector, three constables and one woman constable.
Additional State Director General of Police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena said that team members would verify the details of the missing children after meeting their family members at their respective residences.
“Besides, the members would verify the details of the children now living in the children homes and if possible, they would send them to their houses. Even the non -governmental organisations would be roped in for the purpose,” he said.
Anant Ram Chauhan, DIG (law and order), said that the team members would collect DNA samples from those children whose parents remain unidentified.
“The teams would match the DNA samples of the children with those of their parents in case the latter lay claim to the former,” he said.
The experts who participated in the workshop dwelt on the legal aspects of such cases. Among those present on the occasion were Vinit Kumar, Dehradun SDM, Sudhir Bhatt, member, child welfare committee, Dehradun, JS Bisht, joint director, legal, Dehradun, Aditi Kaur, presidnet of child help lines and Sunita Singh, representative of Bal Shishu Niketan, Dehradun.