Patna, Apr 20 (PTI) A severe heatwave gripped parts of Bihar on Saturday, with the mercury crossing the 42-degrees Celsius mark in at least 11 places, the Met Department said.

The scorching heat will continue in several parts of Bihar in the next few days, it said in a bulletin.

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While Sheikhpura district recorded the highest temperature of 44.1 degrees Celsius, Aurangabad registered 43.7 degrees Celsius, followed by Jamui and Nawada (43.2 deg C each), Gaya (43 deg C), Bhojpur (42.7 deg C), Dehri and Banka (42.6 deg C each), Khagaria (42.5 deg C), Patna (42.2 deg C) and Madhubani (42 deg C).

In view of the rising temperatures, the district administration of Patna has changed the timings of schools from Saturday.

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According to an order issued by Shirsat Kapil Ashok, the district magistrate of Patna, "all schools in the state capital are instructed to change the timings... from 6.30 am to 11.30 am".

“... I, under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, do hereby prohibit the academic activities for all the Classes (up to 10th class) of Private and Government Schools (including Pre-schools, Anganwadi Centres) of the District from 11.30 am to 4 pm.

“The school authorities are hereby directed to reschedule their timings of academic activities in conformity of the order... and it will remain effective till April 30,” an official notification said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)