Flood alert: West Garo Hills admin orders two-day closure of schools

Agencies
SHILLONG, AUGUST 20

After a nine-year-old girl, Sonia Gandhi Bahadur, was swept away by the surging waters of the Ganol river in Asibra in West Garo Hills on Wednesday, the Meghalaya government asked all schools in the district to remain shut for the next 48 hours. Heavy rainfall triggered floods and landslips in the state.The order was issued in view of the Met department’s warning of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the state till August 23.
The search for the missing girl was on and the district disaster management authority was monitoring the situation, West Garo Hills deputy commissioner Pravin Bakshi said. “As a matter of precaution, all schools, lower primary, upper primary, secondary, higher secondary, public or private, shall be closed,” Bakshi said in his order. He added that, in many cases, children had to travel several kilometers to reach school and were vulnerable to accidents during monsoon. In some areas, school buildings were reported to be unsafe and the education department had sent advisories to all schools, including private ones.
Bakshi said a safety audit had indicated that many schools in the district were highly vulnerable to disasters in the event of continuous rain.
Flood warnings were issued by the state emergency operations centre and IMD and people of at least 10 low-lying villages in the district were asked to move to higher ground. All district officials, police and medical personnel in the Garo Hills region were kept on alert, Bakshi said.
Meanwhile, residents of Shillong flocked to market places to stock up on essentials.