Officers said schools in Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar and Junagadh districts will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday, while those in Kutch have been asked to stay shut till June 15.
The Gujarat government has declared holidays for schools in coastal Kutch, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Junagadh districts in the state’s Saurashtra region as a precautionary measure as Cyclone Biparjoy continued its march towards the state Monday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an Orange alert for Saurashtra and Kutch coasts, saying the cyclone will make landfall on the Kutch coast on June 15.
Officers said schools in Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar and Junagadh districts will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday, while those in Kutch have been asked to stay shut till June 15 as the extremely severe cyclonic storm continued to approach the Saurashtra coast.
Devbhumi Dwarka District Collector Ashok Sharma said all schools in the district have been ordered to remain closed considering the gusty winds and heavy rainfall warning.
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Suresh Dumraliya, Jamnagar district primary education officer (DPEO), told The Indian Express, “Being a coastal district, many of our schools are located along the coastline and the government has decided to keep the schools shut keeping in mind the safety of students as well as to make school buildings available for conversion into shelters.”
Sanjay Parmar, district education officer (DEO) of Kutch, said, “Stormy winds and heavy rainfall are also predicted. Keeping this in view, the district administration has decided to keep the schools closed from June 12 to June 15. As many as 71 school buildings have been converted into temporary cyclone shelters and 300 more buildings have been made available for this.”
At a meeting of the Junagadh district core committee on Sunday night, it was decided to keep the schools till Tuesday, V D Ghunchla, DPEO of the district, said. “We will take further decisions depending on the situation.”
However, officers in Morbi and Porbandar said they are monitoring the situation closely and have decided to keep the schools open for now.
The decision to keep the schools closed soon after the state government decided on Sunday afternoon to postpone Shala Praveshotsav, the annual school enrolment drive in Gujarat’s primary schools, in these six districts. In the remaining 27 districts, the festival was curtailed to a two-day affair instead of the usual three days.
According to the IMD bulletin, “The extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Biparjoy’ (pronounced as ‘Biporjoy’) over east-central Arabian Sea moved northwards with a speed of 05 kmph during past 6- hours and lay centered at 0530 hours IST of today, the 12th June, 2023 over the east-central and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea… about 340 km southwest of Porbandar, 380 km south-southwest of Devbhumi Dwarka, 460 km south of Jakhau Port, 470 km south-southwest of Naliya and 640 km south of Karachi (Pakistan).”
“It is very likely to move nearly northward till 14th morning, then move north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra & Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by noon of 15th June as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph,” it added.
The IMD said the cyclone will bring heavy to very heavy rainfall and winds gusting up to 150 kmph. It also warned of a storm surge bringing in sea waves up to three metres tall.
First published on: 12-06-2023 at 10:50 IST