Bhubaneswar: Expressing immense relief over the safe rescue of the one-and-a-half-year-old boy abducted from Ram Temple in Bhubaneswar late Saturday night, Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida announced that the child will receive assistance from the Mission Vatsalya scheme.
She assured that the Women and Child Development Department will take swift action to address concerns regarding child safety and welfare.
Taking to her X handle, the Deputy CM made this announcement stating that “The abducted child son returned to the arms of his blind mother. Now the child will get help under Mission Vaasalya. The Women and Child Development Department will take immediate steps.”
It is pertinent to mention that implemented with a fund sharing pattern of 60:40 between the Centre and the state, the Mission Vatsalya scheme provides monthly financial assistance of Rs 4,000 to eligible children up to the age of 18.
It covers children whose mothers were either widowed, divorced or abandoned by their families besides orphans living with their extended families.
Going by the case history, the child was kidnapped from his visually challenged mother, Laxmi when she was asleep outside the Ram Temple in Bhubaneswar, during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.
The accused, Kedarsan, approached Laxmi gained the family’s trust before abducting the child and taking him to Bhubaneswar Railway Station, where he boarded a train to Balasore. There, he was met by Jhelam Rani Panda, an acquaintance he had made while working in Bengaluru, and together they fled with the child. The police later recovered the child and arrested the accused, revealing a pre-planned kidnapping plot.
