Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) has directed the state government to constitute a committee that will devise modalities to bring back children hailing from Bihar who are in remand homes across the country.

The directive came during hearing of a complaint lodged with the commission in connection with missing minor children from the state on Wednesday.

The commission had taken a suo motu cognisance of the matter on the basis of a formal complaint lodged in this regard in 2014.

Commission chairman Justice (retd) Bilal Nazki on Wednesday issued directive to the principal secretary of home department, asking him to appoint a committee, which could be assigned the task of bringing back the children languishing in remand homes of other states.

The committee would comprise one official each from the criminal investigation department's (CID) weaker section and the BHRC but they should not be below the rank of IG. In addition, the principal secretary of home department would nominate three members.

In January, the commission had received a report from the CID SP, suggesting that altogether 3,342 children belonging to Bihar were lodged in remand homes of different states. The commission had then directed the CID's inspector-general to restore all the missing children with their families within two months.

However, only 90 children from Telangana and 46 from Rajasthan were brought and restored to their families.

The remaining children, whose number could be over 3,000, were still lodged in remands homes outside the state. The CID IG had, however, citied lack of fund as the main reason for their failure to bring back the remaining children to the state.

The report had revealed that around 1,200 children were lodged in different remand homes in Rajasthan alone. The CID SP had also stressed the need of proper arrangement for the stay of the children after their arrival from other states and before sending them to their respective homes.

The SP had pointed out that the state's remand homes would not be able to cope with the situation if such a large number of children would return to the state from outside. The case would be taken up for hearing on June 30.

In a separate case related to illegal detention of two youths of Vaishali in police custody, the commission has asked the ADG CID to appear before it with action taken report on May 2. The order came during hearing of complaint petition filed by one Chinta Devi, a resident of Hajipur in Vaishali district.