Piercing chill and cold waves of numb nights are not over yet. The poor are bracing up for worse across Coal and Steel belt of Jharkhand. Dipping mercury has thrown life out of gear, affecting people of all age groups.

People are forced to collect garbage, plastics, polybags and waste material in every nook and corner to be lit in the absence of bonfire arrangements on the streets to provide respite to them from shivering cold and chattering teeth. Poor people are worst hit in the township areas, including slum dwellers and rickshaw pullers.

Heightened cold wave with the plunging mercury practically paralysed normal life and daily wage earners are finding it hard to eke out a living.

Met Department has forecast a further dip in temperature over the weekend due to icy winds coming from the hills.

The cold wave will continue for the next few days and people need to take more precautions. Snowfall in northern regions of the country is said to have caused the mercury to dip, said a Met department official.

Gomia in Bokaro district recorded a minimum of 4 degrees Celsius with one of its other locality, in the hilly terrain, shivering at 2-4 degrees Celsius (minimum). Though Bokaro and Bermo town recorded a minimum 6 degrees, officials said.

Many people, including a number of NGOs came forward and distributed blankets among the poor shivering in the biting cold on Sunday. “We have distributed blankets among the poor to feel them warmth from biting cold,” said Palak a social activist.