All educational institutions shut in Sirmaur district amid heavy rains

Shimla, Jul 10 (PTI) Following relentless heavy rain, all government and private educational institutions and Anganwadis would remain shut in Himachal's Sirmaur district on Friday, officials said. "Continuous rainfall is leading to obstruction of rural roads, increased risk of landslides and general disruption of normal life, particularly in rural and hilly areas. Such inclement weather conditions are likely to endanger the life and safety of students commuting to and from schools across the district," an order issued by Deputy Commissioner (DC) Priyanka Verma said. A closure of educational institutions was ordered in the Paonta subdivision of the district late on Thursday. However, SDMs of Nahan, Sangrah, Pacchad and Rajgarh subdivisions in the Sirmaur district have also issued separate orders early Friday morning. The MeT department has issued a warning of extremely heavy to very heavy rainfall, which may potentially lead to incidents of landslides, flash floods, uprooting of trees and road blockages, posing a grave danger to life and public safety. Precautionary measures are being taken in the public interest to avoid any untoward incident and to safeguard precious human lives, especially those of school children, officials said. In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 30, Sub-Section (v) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the-DC cum-Chairman, District Disaster Management Authority, Sirmaur has hereby ordered the closure of all government/private educational institutions and Anganwadis on 10 July as a precautionary measure, the order said. All teaching and non-teaching staff, however, shall be present at their respective institutes and have not been exempted, the order added. Heavy rains have led to the closure of several roads in the district, according to reports. Normal life was also disrupted in the state capital Shimla due to rains and a wall collapsed in front of a building in the Vikasnagar area of the city. Two vehicles parked by the roadside were damaged in the collapse. PTI BPL PRK