In light of the heavy rains expected in Bengaluru, schools and anganwadis in the city have been ordered to remain shut on Friday, November 19. Bengaluru Urban Commissioner J Manjunath declared a holiday for children up to Class 10, as well as anganwadis. Following this, the state Education Department directed district administrations across the state to decide on holidays for schools and colleges based on the local weather conditions.
A circular, issued by the Department of Public Instruction, said, "The continuous rains at some of the districts is causing inconvenience to students in reaching the schools. Due to this, a holiday for schools can be declared. Further, the DCs can declare a holiday subject to the condition that schools can hold classes some other day to make up for the losses of academic activities.”
As per the circular, R Vishal, Commissioner of Department of Public Instruction has authorised the district commissioners to take a call on declaring holiday for schools after assessing the situation of rains in their respective districts. "The decision has to be taken at the local level depending on the weather to ensure the safety of students. The holidays will have to be compensated later," the circular said. The district authorities of Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Ramnagar, Tumakuru, Chamarajanagar districts have also announced holidays for schools and colleges.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange warning, indicating authorities to be prepared for very heavy rainfall, for Bengaluru on November 19 and 20. A yellow warning is in place for coastal Karnataka, which includes the districts of Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, for Thursday and Friday, as widespread heavy rains are expected. A few districts in the northern interior region of the state, including Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri have also received a yellow warning from the IMD for Thursday and Friday.
With a depression over north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh, more rain and thunderstorms are predicted in southern and coastal districts of Karnataka for next two days and heavy rains for another four days at isolated places.
According to The Indian Express, this year marks the wettest November that Bengaluru has witnessed in six years, as per data recorded at the IMD’s observatory in the city. 115.8 mm of rain was recorded from November 1 to November 14, which was twice the average. In November 2020, Bengaluru recorded 71 mm of rainfall in the same month, the report said.
With IANS inputs