KOLKATA: A mentally challenged girl who went missing at Howrah was united with her parents after ham radio operators successfully managed to trace his family members in Bihar amid the lockdown over the Coronavirus pandemic. Sandhiya Devi (29), a resident of Purnia district in Bihar, went missing from his home on Holi this year. Her family members made a frantic search and also lodged a missing police complaint. On Tuesday night, she was found inside a bus in Bali area of Howrah.
"Swaraj Ghosh, one of our ham radio members, who was distributing food to the vagrants noticed the mentally retarded girl. He asked her name and address and came to know that she is from Bihar," Ambarish Nag Biswas, custodian and secretary of West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC), an organisation of ham radio enthusiasts in the state said.
WBRC members contacted the ham radio team in Bihar and then traced the girl's address and police station.
"We are grateful to Bihar administration for its prompt response. We have contacted Sandhiya's parents trough video calling. She is the eldest among the four siblings. Her father Bilash Mehatar, resident of Purnia district, Railway quarter, have confirmed that he will come and take his daughter. At present, she has been placed under quarantine at a hospital," pointed out Nag. Meanwhile, an unknown patient was admitted at a hospital in Raichak, South 24-Parganas. "We have found hisfamily at Jharkhali, Sundarbon area, South 24-Parganas just now. His family will come to receive him tomorrow. We are happy to reunite the family," said Nag. While radio amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the radio frequency spectrum, it enables communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.