Mother and Son reunited in AP in a special drive

Andhra Pradesh: AP police is carrying out 'Operation Muskaan Covid-19' under which the police attempts to reunite missing children with their families. Under this drive, a mother was reunited with her son after four years.

Bobba Sri Lalitha, a resident of Palakollu in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh lost her husband soon after the birth of her second son, Srinivas. Struggling to make ends meet, Lalitha had to resort to unskilled jobs, sometimes even rag-picking to feed her sons.

In 2016, Srinivas decided to flee and boarded a train in Palakollu and ended up at Vijayawada railway station. He was found by the Railway Police who shifted him to a Child Care Centre in Vijayawada and he has been there ever since.

"DGP Gautam Sawang launched the special drive under the flagship campaign, 'Operation Muskaan Covid-19' to accommodate to such kids who needed help during the Coronavirus pandemic. Srinivas case was revisited by the police to get him reunited with his family," said CID ADG PV Sunil Kumar.

Srinivas finally revealed that he is a native of Palakollu in the West Godavari district. The same was then communicated to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of West Godavari by the Vijayawada CWC. The authorities then got into the action with the sole motive of facilitating the reunion of Srinivas with his mother.

Speaking on this, DGP Gautam Sawang, "It is very heartwarming to be able to facilitate the reunion of a mother-son duo after almost four years. The policemen are not only rescuing the children from the street but also testing them for coronavirus."

As many as 2,739 kids have been rescued under Operation Muskan in the last one week alone. Police have also rescued 10 kids whose native is Bihar and were being used as bonded labour by a company called MS Enterprises. They have been shifted to Child Care homes while a case has been registered against the management of the firm under relevant sections. The drive will be continued until July 20.