Over 100 vehicles stranded in Valley,schools closed

Reports from Banihal said hundreds of people were stranded at different places along the highway. “We reached Banihal early in the morning. The police stopped us from proceeding towards the Valley as the highway was closed. The officials said there’s no possibility of the highway opening before Friday as it was snowing heavily near Ramban,” said Abdul Qayoom,a school teacher from Srinagar.

Since Wednesday evening,a white blanket of snow had covered the Valley and as the day progressed the upper reaches of Kashmir received more than two to three feet of snow. Around two feet of snow accumulated near Jawahar tunnel.

According to the police control room in Jammu,there was 7 inch to 1 ft snow at various places between Patnitop and Jawahar tunnel,making the highway slippery. The situation was similar on Batote-Doda-Kishtwar highway where landslides triggered by incessant rains had made the road unfit for traffic movement. There were also flash floods in nullahs en route.

The Meteorological department has predicted more snowfall in the next 24 hours,especially in Gulmarg,Gurez,Machil. This has prompted the Tourism department to be hopeful that snow will attract tourists to Gulmarg.

The snow has ended a three-month-long dry spell. After the snowfall the discharge in rivers has increased,improving power generation from 268 MW to 364 MW. The state government on Thursday closed all schools for an indefinite period. “The schools have been closed due to bad weather. There’s no specific date for re-opening them. They have been closed till further orders,” said the Director,School Education,Kashmir,Shagufta Parveen.

The government had earlier decided to keep the schools open this winter. Though it changed the decision and announced winter vacation up to class VIII from December 15,regular classes continued in more than 600 schools for the students of class IX to XII. To counter the winter chill,the government claimed heating arrangements were made in schools. The decision to keep schools open during winter — the Valley’s schools normally close for winter vacation from December 15 till March 1 — was taken to “compensate” for the losses suffered by students during the five summer months when both government and private schools remained closed due to protests,shutdowns and curfews. The decision was criticised by students as schools are short of basic infrastructure and there’s a cold wave. With inputs from ENS,Jammu