Minister of state for home Satej Patil on Wednesday announced that special drives would be carried out in all districts to trace missing girls. Senior BJP legislator Shobhatai Phadnavis, through calling attention motion, pointed out that more than 22,000 girls had gone missing in last three years, out of which only around 15,000 have been traced so far. Replying to the motion, Mr Patil said that in the Satara district, local police officials had carried out drives, wherein a majority of the girls who went missing were traced. “We will implement similar drives in all districts to trace missing girls,” he said. The minister also said that the police department would also be asked to include details of missing girls in the monthly crime report sent by various units to their superiors. Ms Phadnavis pointed out that on an average around 8,000 girls go missing every year. According to her, as many as 8,345 girls had gone missing in 2011, of which the police managed to trace only 5, 283, while the rest are still missing. In the previous two years, over 14,000 girls had gone missing of which only 10,506 were traced. The MLC also claimed that there are organised gangs, which are involved in the kidnapping of girls and selling them off. Some of the groups even lure girls with the promise of marriage and later they are forced into flesh trade, she alleged. Ms Phadnavis said, “In the Chandrapur district alone, around 350 girls have gone missing and the police is yet to trace them. The police also insists that a complaint of a girl going missing will be registered only after 24 hours, which gives criminals ample time to take the girls outside the state.” The minister said that the police have been quite successful in tracing the missing girls and the state has set up human trafficking cells in every district. Shiv Sena MLC Anil Parab wanted the state to impose MCOCA against those involved in trafficking of girls. On this, Mr Patil said that there are enough provisions in the present laws to take tough action against those involved in trafficking.
