With the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing a red alert and predicting very heavy rainfall in Goa, the state government on July 7 said it has declared a holiday on July 8 and 9 for students of classes 1-8.

However, normal classes will be held for class 9-10 students, the State Directorate Of Education said in a circular.

"In view of the red alert issued by the Indian Metrological Department, Goa Centre, predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall and extremely heavy rainfall over the two districts, it is decided by the competent authority to declare holiday on 8th and 9th July 2022 for the students from STD I to VIII in the state of Goa," it said.

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The IMD has forecast extremely heavy rainfall in Goa on July 8, and very heavy rainfall from July 9-10. A red alert has been issued for July 8.

Under the influence of the low-pressure area over central parts of Madhya Pradesh, an associated cyclonic circulation, and an off-shore trough from Gujarat to Maharashtra, fairly widespread rainfall has been forecast for the next five days in these regions as well as in Telangana, Kerala, coastal Karnataka and Odisha, the India Meteorological Department said.

A good spell of rainfall over the past couple of days has helped reduce the cumulative deficit for the country to 2 percent from 8 percent last Friday (July 1), the weather office data showed.

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Monsoon continues to remain deficient in Uttar Pradesh (-48 percent), Jharkhand (-42 percent), Kerala (-38 percent), Odisha (-26 percent), Mizoram (-25 percent), Manipur (-24 percent), and Gujarat (-22 percent), the IMD data on daily rainfall showed.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jul 7, 2022 9:05 PM IST