Rains pound Uttarakhand, schools to remain shut

With heavy rain forecast in Uttarakhand till Monday and showers continuing in most parts on Saturday, schools have been shut down in Dehradun, Paudi, Tehri and Haridwar, an official said.

"Keeping in mind the safety of the students and teachers, all schools up to Class 12 have been shut down," an official told IANS.

Vigil has been stepped up in the state capital here, and the hill station of Nainital, Chamoli, Rudrprayag, Paudi, Champawat and Udhamsingh Nagar districts.

The state and national disaster management bodies SDRF and NDRF have been put on high alert.

The Regional Met Office has predicted that the hill state will receive heavy to very heavy rains till September 3.

Landslides have been reported from the Badrinath, Kedarnath and Yamunotri highways and trekkers have been asked to stay put at safe places.

More than 200 link roads in the hill regions are out of bounds for traffic owing to damage inflicted by continuous and heavy showers.

The Ganga river is in spate in Haridwar and is flowing near the danger mark. District authorities have asked people living in Haripurkalan, Gaziwali and Kangdi to shift to safer places.

Water entered low-lying areas in Haripurkalan as the Ganga here was flowing at 292.80 metres late on Friday after extra water was released by the Srinagar barrage. The danger mark is at 294 metres.

"We are keeping a close watch," Meera Kaintura, the district disaster management officer of Haridwar said.

This is for the first time this monsoon season that the Ganga is flowing so close to the danger mark.

--IANS

md/in