Bhubaneswar, Dec 30 (IANS): Odisha Police on Wednesday decided to launch Operation Smile-2 from January next year to trace and rescue missing children in the country.

A meeting was held at the Crime Branch Headquarters in Cuttack to sensitize police officials for carrying out search and rescue of the missing children.

Director General of Police K.B. Singh, along with more than 100 police officials from various districts of the state, was present in the meeting.

Crime Branch Additional Director General B.K. Sharma said 'Operation Smile-2' will be implemented in two phases.

The first phase will be from January 1 to 15 within Odisha while the second phase will be held from January 16 to 31 outside Odisha, he added.

Ten police teams have been constituted for the special drive. Each team will comprise at least five police personnel, two of whom would be woman police officers.

Odisha Police have preliminary information on about 2,500 missing children from the state. Based on the information, the Crime Branch sleuths would visit different places to rescue them.

"Police have also obtained information about missing Odia children outside the state in various places in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and at Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, and Nashik. The children have been traced in temples, brick kilns, orphanages, children homes and the like," said Sharma.

Sources said around 30,000 children were rescued across the country under 'Operation Smile-1' while in Odisha itself, police have rescued 900 children.