Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday expressed its concern over the rising number of cases relating to children missing, abduction and trafficking in Telangana. The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar, observed that this issue should be taken seriously by the government and authorities.
The Bench was dealing with suo motu PIL based on news reports published in newspapers that stated that an average of 10 children go missing in Telangana every day. The reports also mentioned that around 4,000 children remain untraced.
It was informed that Telangana has been ranked eighth nationwide in the count of missing
children and as many as 654 children including 391 girls, who went missing in 2022, have not been traced.
Observing that these numbers about missing and untraced children impact the moral and ethical degradation of individual and society, the court took it as the suo moto PIL and heard it on Wednesday.
The Bench directed the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretaries of Home and Child Welfare department and Director General of Police to file their contentions within four weeks on the missing children cases and efforts are being made by the government to trace them.
