Bengaluru on Yellow Alert: Govt declares holiday for schools, advises IT employees to work from home

To make up for the lost teaching time due to this precautionary holiday, the government has directed schools to conduct extra classes on Saturday afternoons or Sundays. The district commissioner also advised parents, principals, and students to avoid waterlogged areas.

The decision to declare a public holiday on October 21 faced backlash from parents, especially since the rains had stopped by the time children had already gone to school.

D. Shashikumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), expressed dissatisfaction over the frequent holidays and their potential impact on learning. “The government should ideally leave the decision to declare holidays to the discretion of respective schools and deputy directors of public education in the zones. Rainfall has been scattered over the past few days, with major waterlogging reported in only a few areas. Given that many holidays have already been granted this month due to Dasara and the upcoming Deepavali festivals, it would be prudent to grant holidays only to schools affected by waterlogging to ensure that students’ learning in other schools is not hindered,” he said.

Advise to work from home

Meanwhile, the Department of IT-BT and Electronics, Government of Karnataka, has advised all IT-BT and private employees to work from home. In an advisory issued to all IT-BT and private companies, the government stated, “The India Meteorological Department (IMD) – Met Centre Bengaluru has issued a Yellow Warning for Bengaluru Urban, effective from 1:30 PM IST on October 22, 2024, to 8:30 AM IST on October 23, 2024. This warning indicates potentially severe weather conditions due to heavy rainfall. In light of the Yellow Warning and anticipated bad weather, we prioritize the safety and well-being of employees working in IT, BT, and private companies. To ensure employee safety, we recommend that IT, BT, and private companies in Bengaluru permit their employees to work from home on October 23, 2024.”

The Outer Ring Road (ORR), which stretches from Iblur to Marathahalli and is home to major tech parks, has suffered extensive waterlogging due to Monday night’s rains. Bengaluru traffic police have advised commuters to avoid the ORR between Iblur and Marathahalli and to use alternative routes, as the stretch is completely congested due to waterlogging on service roads.

The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre has predicted moderate to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru until 8:30 AM on October 23. According to the rain forecast, the Yelahanka and Bommanahalli zones are expected to receive heavy rainfall (between 64.5 mm and 115.5 mm), while other areas will experience moderate rainfall.

A record

The downpour on Monday evening set a new record for the highest daily rainfall at a weather station in Bengaluru, with 186.2 mm recorded at the IMD’s GKVK station in the northern part of the city.

This is the highest daily rainfall registered by an IMD station in the city in 27 years, surpassing the previous record of 178.9 mm on October 1, 1997. The intense rainfall has caused multiple lakes, including Yelahanka, Kogilu, and Kannur, to overflow, wreaking havoc on the residents of North Bengaluru and disrupting normal life.