Berhampur: Two girls who had gone missing from Utkal Balashram, a child care institute in Berhampur, were rescued from Gajapati district on Saturday, police said.Both children – aged 12 and seven – originally hail from Ramnagar area of Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district. On Tuesday, police had rescued nine children – six girls and three boys – who were begging in Berhampur on Tuesday and housed them in Utkal Balashram upon the direction of the district child welfare committee (CWC).Two of these children, however, escaped from the institute by scaling its boundary wall between 3:20pm and 3:40pm on Tuesday. The matter came to light on the same day in the evening when Sasmita Rani Padhi, the superintendent of the Balashram, lodged an FIR at Gosaninuagaon police station. “Acting on the report, a special police team was immediately formed to track the missing minors,” SP (Berhampur) Saravana Vivek M said, adding, “Following an intensive search and the activation of reliable local intelligence networks, the team found them in Sidamadam village under Paralakhemundi police station limits.” After being rescued, they were again housed in Utkal Balashram after being produced before the CWC, police said.On Saturday, district child protection officer Rajashree Das, upon the direction of Ganjam collector V Keerthi Vasan, conducted an inquiry to determine how they fled the institute. “The report will be submitted to the collector soon,” Das said.At present, the institute has 46 inmates and 15 staff, including three security personnel. The incident has raised concerns about its security measures as this was the second incident in the last six months.On Oct 20 last year, two of its inmates, who were victims in a Pocso case, had fled the institute. One of them has a child and they are yet to be traced, sources said.
