Dehra Dun, April 2
A pet bitch belonging to a top Uttarakhand bureaucrat turned out to be more fortunate than scores of missing children of the hill state.

Sources said though the pet named Mirchi returned to its master’s house about two days back on its own since it went missing on March 24, the local police did a hard job to trace it.

After failing in its mission, the concerned area police officials decided to take help of the local cable TV network. Reward was also offered to anyone providing clue about the two-years-old pet. And a strip carrying description of the pet withholding the identity of its master all these days was taken off the air only today.

Interestingly, around 60 children, including six girls, in the state reported untraced during 2006, were not that lucky as police investigations have allegedly remained lethargic. As per the records of the Uttarakhand police, a total of 183 children up to the age of 17 years went missing in 2006, out of which 122 returned home. No figures are available for the earlier period.