Bhubaneswar, Mar 17: As many as 20,060 cases regarding missing persons have been registered at different police stations in Odisha during the last nine months.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi revealed the information while replying to a question asked by Congress MLA Sofia Firdous in the Odisha Assembly on Monday.

Majhi further stated that the police officials managed to trace 7,048 missing persons out of the total 20,060 cases reported in the state between June 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025.

Meanwhile, 13,012 persons who went missing during the above period are yet to be traced out by the police forces.

Majhi also said that delay in reporting by the relatives especially due to social stigma, ignorance and other reasons is one of the major causes of delay in tracing out the missing persons.

“Some persons proceed outside the state for work without informing the family members for which they report them as missing. There are also missing cases of girls in which minor girls have eloped with boys/men and evade police notice due to fear of criminal prosecution against the boys/ men with whom they have been living,” CM Majhi narrated.

The Odisha CM said that in a good number of cases, the informant and relatives of the missing persons hesitate to disclose the actual facts before the police initially, due to various reasons.

Many cases are still pending in the records as when missing children are traced in other districts or states, the information shared by such children regarding their identity like name of parents, name of village, name of district and other details are not shared with the Police station to which the missing child belongs to.

The Mission Vatsalya portal launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to integrate multiple stakeholders such as law enforcement, child welfare organisations and other government bodies to ensure reintegration of missing and recovered children with their families by uploading their details in the portal.

“However, the details regarding children institutionalised in Child Care Institutions across the country are not being uploaded by CWCs, CCIs etc., across the country for which it is difficult to link these children to the missing cases of children of different police stations in Odisha,” added CM Majhi.

He further proposed the integration of Facial Recognition software into Mission Vatsalya Portal to facilitate establishing the identity of such children and in re-integrating them with their parents.

To address the challenges, the state government has been emphasising on filling up vacancies in IAHTU, SJPU and Police Stations.

The government has also planned to spend Rs 3.24 crore to the Special Juvenile Police Units (SJPUs) in all districts and Rs 2.61 crore to IUCAWs of 29 districts for hiring of vehicles with drivers for transportation of rescued children for reintegration with their family.

CM Majhi said his government has also decided to provide funds to the Mahila and Sishu Desks of all 649 police stations to cover expenditure towards food and other expenses for the rescue of the missing women and children.

The government has projected to provide Rs 19.47 crore to provide Rs 25,000 per Mahila and Sishu Desk of each Police Station across the state on monthly basis.

--IANS

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