LUCKNOW, July 1 -- Twenty days after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court cracked down on the handling of missing minor girls' cases, the Lucknow Police has traced 24 of the 34 girls who were untraced when the matter came up before the court, reducing the number of pending cases to 10. Lucknow commissioner of police Amrendra K Sengar confirmed the development to HT, saying that 24 of the 34 girls who were earlier untraced had since been found. The progress comes after the high court directed close monitoring of investigations and sought regular updates from senior police officers. The issue had come under judicial scrutiny after the HC expressed concern over the rising number of missing minor girls and warned police officials of contempt proceedings if investigations were not monitored properly. At the time, affidavits submitted before the court showed that 34 girls remained untraced out of 261 reported abducted, kidnapped, enticed away or missing during the first six months of the year. The East Zone, which earlier had the highest number of pending cases, has recorded the biggest improvement. DCP (east) Deeksha Sharma told HT that only one girl remains to be traced out of the 10 cases that were pending when the matter was heard by the court. The South Zone, which earlier had seven pending cases, also has only one remaining, said ADCP (south) Vasanth Rallapalli. DCP (north) Gopal Krishna Chaudhary said majority of missing girls in his zone had been traced but did not disclose the exact number of cases still pending. DCP (west) Kamlesh Dixit said there were no pending missing girls' cases in the zone, although police records submitted before the HC earlier had shown six unresolved cases. One of the five pending cases in Central Zone had been solved and special teams activated to trace the remaining four girls, said DCP (central) Vikrant Vir. The recoveries come after the HC directed DCPs across all five zones to monitor investigations, keep judicial officers informed of the progress and ensure every effort is made to trace the missing girls. With 10 girls still untraced, the investigations remain under the court's watch....