18 Gajapati kids rescued from Coimbatore reach home

PARLAKHEMUNDI: The Tamilnadu police along with Child Welfare Committee (CWC) members of the State handed over the 18 rescued tribal kids to Gajapati district administration at Palasa railway station in Andhra Pradesh on the wee hours of Thursday. It was the second phase of the rescue operation, before the Tamilnadu police and the CWC members of the State had successfully rescued 18 children from a church at Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu. The total number of the rescued children from the south Indian State touched to 36 so far.

At 12.30 am on Thursday, a team of 13 police officials led by an ASI from Coimbatore reached with the rescued 18 tribal kids at Palasa railway station in Andhra Pradesh by Ernakulam-Patna express train. A team consisted of Gajapati district CWC member Bhagyalaxmi Nayak, Campaign Against Child Labour State convener Sudhir Sabat and Sub-collector of Gajapati district Biswajeet Biswal were waiting to receive the kids at the railway station. The Tamilnadu team handed over the kids, comprised of 10 boys and 8 girls, to the Gajapati team.

The kids were kept at the Swadhar home at Patikata village under Gosani village. The administration would hand over the kids to their parents on Friday, sources said.  

It may be noted that one month back, some organisations had taken the children from different places of the Gumma and Gosani block by giving assurance to their parents to provide good education and amenities. But, the children were in distress in the church. When the local District Welfare Officer got information about the children, who were staying at a church in Tirunelveli and some others were staying at Coimbatore, conducted a raid and rescued them with the help of Child Welfare Committee. After getting information from the officers, a team from Odisha had gone there to bring the children.