The New Jalpaiguri railway station

Siliguri, July 14: Three children below 13 years have been handed over to parents and an organisation in less than 24 hours, while five under-18 girls on a Delhi-bound train had to be let go because there was no shelter to keep them in.

The minors were on the run in search of better pastures or just for the sake of adventure.

A network of informers at Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus and the New Jalpaiguri station noticed the minors. They informed the police or GRP after confirming that the children were runaways or lost.

In the case of Ranjita (13) and Chadni (10) Biswas (names changed), the two girls from Jatiakhali Nabagram in Jalpaiguri’s Rajganj, it was a case of getting onto the wrong bus. The two were rescued from the bus terminus around 6pm yesterday.

Child In Need Institute (CINI)’s north Bengal centre was informed and so was the four-month-old district child welfare committee.

“The police were told to locate the parents based on information provided by the children, and after verifying their identity, hand over the girls to their guardians,” said Mrinal Ghosh, one of the five members of the committee, who is in charge of the Siliguri subdivision area.

“By 10pm, the girls were handed over to their parents. The minors wanted to go to an aunt’s place but had got onto a wrong bus. They had not informed their guardians leading to all the trouble,” Ghosh said.

A 12-year-old boy, who works as a domestic help in the house of a school principal in Gangtok, was rescued at the Siliguri Junction station today. He was coming to his home in Naxalbari on his own but had lost his way. The Naxalbari police have been informed and the boy’s parents too will arrive here tomorrow to take him home, Ghosh said.

The boy would spend the night with the CINI.

The five girls were identified on the Mahananda Link Express when the train halted at NJP station yesterday. The GRP and Conc’rn, an NGO working at the station, had to let them catch the next train to Delhi, where they work as domestic helps.

“Unless there is a home for them, rescued minor children will not get justice,” Ghosh said.