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| Girls on a bycicle at Kargil Chowk in Patna early on Saturday morning. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh |
Patna, Dec. 17: The Bihar government today said all schools across the state could declare a holiday from Monday if the cold wave-like situation continued.
“The state is at present reeling under a cold wave-like situation. All schools, both government and private, would close if there is no change in the condition,” Anjani Kumar Singh, principal secretary, education, said.
Earlier this week, the administration had directed all schools to close their Montessori (nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten) classes because of the chill in the air.
“If the situation does not change on Monday, all schools will be closed until the mercury level goes up,” the bureaucrat said.
Friday was the coldest day in the state capital with the mercury dropping to 6.6ºC. Today, the condition improved slightly with the temperature going up to 9ºC. But that did not bring much relief to the people because of the early morning fog.
“The minimum temperature in Patna today stood at nine degrees, while it was seven degrees in Gaya. There could be an increase of one degree in Sunday’s minimum temperature in Patna. But there will be no respite from the fog,” C.S Patil, the meteorologist at the Patna Met Department, told The Telegraph.
The residents of Patna said it was time that the schools closed for the time being because of the unbearable cold.
“It is becoming very difficult every passing day. The children cannot get up in the morning for school. Besides, it is dangerous to go out in the early hours because of the fog. The government should immediately close the schools, at least for a week, and wait for the condition to improve,” S.K Yadav, a resident of Kadam-kuan and a businessman, told The Telegraph.
Air services were also hit in the capital because of the fog. No flight could land at the Jaiprakash Narayan Inter-national Airport till 3pm.
“All flights were delayed, while three Jet Airways flights, bound for Calcutta, were cancelled,” an airport official said.
