Hamirpur/Shimla, The Himachal Pradesh government issued an order closing the educational institutes in the state till September 21st, here on Tuesday.
The schools were already closed till September 14th earlier. A spokesman of the state government said that taking note of the present situation of COVID-19 active cases and positivity rate in the state, the undersigned in the capacity of the Chairman-State Executive Committee (SEC), in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 22(2) (h) and Section 24 of the Disaster Management Act 2005, and in continuation of earlier SEC orders, has directed that that all schools shall continue to remain close, except residential schools, further up to 21.09.2021.
Teaching and non-teaching staff will however, continue to attend the school. For residential schools SOPs developed by the Department of Education will be followed to contain the spread of COVID-19. Any one found violating these measures and not following COVID appropriate behavior will be liable to be proceeded against as per the provision of Section 51-60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides legal action under Section 188 of the IPC, and other legal provisions as applicable.
This order will come into effect immediately and shall remain in force till further orders and all other restrictions and relaxations shall remain the same as per previous SEC orders.
(EW correspondent)
