BHUBANESWAR: With temperature hovering around 40 degree Celsius and above in several places across Odisha, the state government on Tuesday said it will review the heatwave situation soon to take a call on summer holidays.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, School and Mass Education minister Nityananda Gond said summer vacation as per the academic calendar usually starts around May first week.
“This year too, the schedule for the summer holidays is May 6 onwards. However, we will review the heatwave situation soon and take a decision on summer vacation accordingly,” he added.
Keeping in view the rising temperature, the department has already announced morning classes for all schools in March, Gond said. In 2024, the state had to prepone summer vacation by 10 days in view of the prevailing heatwave condition.
This year too, the SME department has already issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to be followed at the school level, and has asked all field-level functionaries to ensure adequate precautionary measures are followed and provision of adequate drinking water supply and ORS packets is made on the campuses to deal with the situation effectively.
The summer that arrived earlier than expected this year, has started pushing mercury level above 40 degree Celsius in a dozen of places from the beginning of April. On the day, 11 stations recorded the highest daytime temperature of 40 degree Celsius and above with Angul being the hottest at 42.7 degree Celsius.
Jharsuguda sizzled at 41.6 degree Celsius while Titilagarh, Sonepur and Balangir boiled at 41.5, 41.4 and 41.2 degree Celsius respectively.
Temperature in Twin City Bhubaneswar and Cuttack hovered around 36 degree Celsius each.
Met officials said the temperature recorded an appreciable rise of around 2 degrees in parts of the state. However, it also recorded a drop by an equal measure in parts of Koraput and other places which received light to moderate rainfall and thunderstorm activities.
The temperature may record a marginal drop in some places in the coming days owing to thundershower activities in parts of the state till April 11, the weather officials informed.