Vikash Sharma

Cuttack: What would you immediately do after finding a bundle of a ‘unclaimed cash ‘on the road, return or take it back home. Well many would have secretly taken it back but Rashmita Behera and Sujata Panda of Cuttack did exactly the opposite.

Setting an exemplary example of ‘honesty’, the 19-year-old girls, who are part of the young brigade of the students’ traffic volunteers of Commissionerate police, deposited over Rs 1 lakh they recovered while doing their duty at busy Madhupatna junction yesterday.

Both Rashmita and Sujata are students of JKBK College and active members of the students’ traffic volunteers team engaged in streamlining traffic in several parts of the millennium city.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a tweet congratulated both the girls for showing honesty and returning the money. Such action by the young traffic volunteers will inspire others and mostly youth to follow their path.

“We were doing our duty yesterday when we found a bundle of Rs 2,000 notes lying on the road. We had frantically searched for the owner but could not find any claimant. As our duty was about to get over, we then handed over the bundle of cash to Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) P.K.Dalai sir,” said Rashmita who hails from Ramnagar on the outskirts of the city.

Senior officials of Commissionerate police informed that the two girl students’ could have easily taken the money but instead they let us know the matter which is certainly a matter of pride for the entire police department in the city.

The girls were completely ignorant about the amount. Only when we counted the notes, we knew that the cash was over Rs 1 lakh, said Dalai.

“As Traffic wing cannot keep the unclaimed cash, we have deposited it with Madhupatna police and a station diary has been made in connection with incident,” Dalai said.

Dalai further informed that all nearby police stations have been informed about the recovery of the cash. Only after proper verification, the money would be handed over to the claimant.

According to reports, the girl traffic volunteers found the bundle of cash at around 11 am near Agarwala Eye Institute at Madhupatna square yesterday. It is suspected that the cash had fallen from the pockets of a motorcyclist who was travelling from OMP side towards Madhupatna.

“How could we keep the money that is not ours and I personally felt that the money needs to be returned to the actual owner,” said Sujata Panda, who hails from Jagatpur.

It is noteworthy that both girl students comes from a poor social background as Rashmita’s father works as a helper with Akshaya Patra foundation while Sujata’s father works at a beverage company at Jagatpur.

“Despite all odds, we have been taught by our family to be honest and work for the welfare of the society,” Sujata added.

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