During the one-month Operation Smile that was started from February 1, Uttarakhand police have rescued 295 missing children from different parts of the State, said State director general of police Anil K Raturi on Friday.

He said that out of this 295, missing report of 52 children were registered in the police stations across Uttarakhand while nine were registered in the police stations in other states. He added that there was no missing report involving 243 children. “Of them 108 were from Uttarakhand while 135 were from other states,” DGP said, adding that in course of physical inspection by the police teams, 55 children were found present in their homes.

DGP Raturi awarded sub-inspector Manju Pandey of Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) team, Champawat with a citation letter and cash of Rs 5, 000 while Rs 2, 000 each was given to inspector Anil Joshi of AHT, Haridwar, sub-inspector Munnawar Hussein of AHT, Nainital, sub-inspector Vinod Kumar, AHT, Tehri and sub-inspector Javed Hasan of AHT, Udham Singh Nagar. Besides, Rs 1000 each was given to sub-inspector Vinod Kumar, Railway, sub-inspector Durga Prasad of Rudraprayag, sub-inspector Pradeep Rawat of AHT, Dehradun. Raturi said that the objective behind re-launching of Operation Smile from February 1 to February 28 was met with the missing children being traced, rehabilitated and reunited with their families.

Additional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumar said that out of the rescued children, 52 have been sent to the homes meant for children while the rest 243 were reunited with their families.

Out of total 295, 24 missing children were recovered by the teams in Dehradun district while 52 in Haridwar, 16 in Nainital, 29 in Udham Singh Nagar, 11 in Pauri, 20 in Tehri, 14 in Uttarkashi, 22 in Rudraprayag, 13 in Chamoli, 59 in Champawat, one in Bageshwar, 14 in Pithoragarh, six by Almora and 14 by Railway police.

IG (law and order) Deepam Seth said that the campaign operation smile was conducted in places like shelter homes, dhabas, industries, bus stations and railway stations where possibility of finding of missing children was optimum in the first phase of the operation while in the second phase, teams were sent to other states, including Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

He further said that five teams had been formed each in Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital districts while four in Udham Singh Nagar, two in Uttarkashi and one each in the remaining districts of the state.

“Team was assisted by legal and technical team. Each team comprised one sub-inspector and four constables. Circle officers at the district levels were appointed as nodal officers.

District police officers searched for the missing children not just in their jurisdictional areas but other districts/states too,” he said.