Till now, Chhattisgarh did not have any special unit to deal with cases of missing persons and district police were held responsible for solving these cases. Once the special squad is set up, all cases regarding missing persons would be referred to it directly by the district police forces, the minister said.

The announcement came after the Home Minister was cornered on the issue of 24 children who were reported missing in the seven months between July 1, 2006 and Jan 31, 2007 from the tribal area of Surguja, which is Netam’s home district. He announced the measure during the budgetary discussions for his department.

He admitted that some of the missing children were sent to Delhi by some employment agencies while others were sent to Uttar Pradesh. However, the minister rejected accusations by the Opposition that he had failed to “take any bold step to stop” the selling of children. Netam said strict action would be taken against those found luring poor children to work in other parts of the country.

Dissatisfied with minister’s reply, Congress members staged a walkout from the Assembly. They said, “If the Home Minister cannot check incidents of missing children in his home district how can he account for missing kids in other 15 districts of the state.”

The opposition members also sought a detailed list of children missing from all over the state during recent months. The state police force has been repeatedly targeted by the Congress over its inability in solving such cases. Even the Home Minister acceded that the police force was stretched as it had been battling Naxalites in a number of districts.