40 children and two adults trafficked to Sikkim rescued, Chief Minister spends time and interacts with the victims

Dispur, July 25: Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma today making his government’s priority categorically clear said that along with drugs and cattle trafficking, State government would be relentless in its efforts to wipe out human trafficking from the state.

Spending some time with 40 children and two adults who were rescued from Sikkim and interacting with them, Dr. Sarma said, “We cannot tolerate childhood, the most promising period of one's life, being snatched away. We cannot even allow exploitation of children either. I hail Assam Police led by Special DGP L.R. Bishnoi and Chirang SP Gaurav Upadhaya and their team for recovering 40 children and two adults from the clout of child traffickers.

After interacting with the innocent minds, I strongly felt that the children were denied of their rights and subjected to shabby treatment”. He, therefore said that the State government will adopt a State Policy for Rehabilitation of the children who are trafficked and rescued to secure their future.

He said that the rehabilitation policy will essentially address emotional issues of the children to secure their childhood so that in the near future they can bloom into good and resourceful citizen after getting right kind of education.

It may be noted that upon information of 80 children from four villages from BTR along the Indo-Bhutan border trafficked to outside, Assam police using its intelligence traced out 42 victims in Sikkim.

They were rescued from Sikkim with the help of the Sikkim Police and brought back to Assam. Now the government would handover the children to their parents and upon taking their permission, the children would be sent to residential schools.

The government would also seek the recommendations of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in this regard. Chief Minister Dr. Sarma also said that continuing its operations against human trafficking, the State government in the last two months rescued 107 children and women from different parts of the nation.

Dr. Sarma also said that he would visit the villages of the rescued children along the Indo-Bhutan border and talk to their parents in his bid to understand the malice to redress the problem permanently. Dr. Sarma also made it clear that State government is committed to eliminate the ills of human trafficking from Assam, as more operations would be launched to bust the human trafficking network and deal with the persons involved in the crime very sternly.

It may be noted that when a 13-year-old child who was being trafficked to Sikkim from Shantipur area of Chirang district, intercepted by Kalimpong police, West Bengal, a team of Chirang Police under S.I. Pranab Deka went to West Bengal and caught hold the accused namely Krishna Yogi and Tika Ram Ghimiray. During interrogation, it was revealed that several children were trafficked from Runikhata area to Sikkim.

A Chirang Police Team rushed to Sikkim on July 19 and upon three day of sustained efforts with the help of Sikkim Police and CWC Sikkim 40 children and two adults were rescued. All the rescued victims were produced before CWC Sikkim and CWC Chirang. Of the 40 children, 16 are female and 24 male and two female adults and the police recovered them all after receiving their consent.

Efforts are also on to recover more trafficked children and apprehend all the culprits involved in this human trafficking racket. BTC Chief Pramod Boro, DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, Special DGP L.R. Bishnoi, Chirang SP Gaurav Upadhaya were also present during Chief Minister’s interaction with the children.

Bongaigaon Times