District police have rescued 326 children from various places in the second phase of "Operation Smile", an initiative to trace missing children which culminated on January 31, a senior official said today.
In the operation that was relaunched in the New Year, 326 children have been rescued. Of the total, parents of 302 were identified and the kids were handed over to them, Nodal Officer "Operation Smile", DySP Ran Vijay Singh said.
Parents of 21 children have also been informed, who are yet to arrive here to collect their wards, Singh said, adding that search is on to trace the parents of the remaining three kids.
Twenty-five police teams comprising 100 trained personnel were dispatched to Agra, Delhi, Jaipur and Haridwar in search of minors, who were working in restaurants, begging on traffic signals, loitering on roads, picking rags.
In most of the cases, we are trying to lauch an in-depth probe to fathom why the children had fled from home, he said.
In the first phase of the operation, which was launched in November last, 227 children were rescued, the official said.
Keeping in view the success of both the phases of the operation, the home ministry has asked all state governments to replicate it in their respective states, he said.
