Atal Bihari Vajpayee dead: All Delhi schools, colleges to remain closed on Friday

The Delhi government has announced that all schools and colleges in the national capital will remain closed on Friday as mark of respect to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who breathed his last at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Thursday evening.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced the same on microblogging site Twitter on Thursday evening. He tweeted, “All Delhi govt offices, schools and other institutions shall remain closed tomorrow (on Friday), as mark of respect for our dear departed Sh Atal ji.”

All schools including private schools also shall remain closed. https://t.co/3aB8fBs5yf

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) August 16, 2018

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to Twitter to mourn the demise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart. He tweeted, “Am deeply saddened. A great loss for India.”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee breathed his last at 5.05 pm on Thursday following prolonged illness. His medical condition had been deteriorating since Tuesday and was placed on life support system.

Confirming his demise, AIIMS released a statement, “It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of Former Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 05:05pm on 16.08.2018. Shri Vajpayee was admitted in AIIMS on 11.06.2018 and was stable in the last 9 weeks under the care of a team of AIIMS doctors.”

It further read, “Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today. We join the Nation in deeply mourning this great loss.”

The Central government has declared a 7-day national mourning, during which period the national flag will be flown at half mast throughout the country. The political stalwart would be accorded a state funeral.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also announced that all schools and colleges will remain closed on Friday. All government offices in the state will also remain closed.