With northern, central and eastern regions in India in the grip of a cold wave, which is believed to have claimed over 300 lives so far, the Bihar government began distributing blankets among the poor in all the 37 districts of the state.

A senior official in the finance department told rediff.com that Chief Minister Rabri Devi had earmarked Rs seven million (Rs 70 lakh) for the purpose and the funds have been sent to districts.

In Patna, RJD supreme Laloo Prasad Yadav personally distributed some blankets. The Patna district administration is believed to have distributed over 2,000 blankets and has plans to distribute 5,000 more.

Rabri Devi's order came after Patna and Gaya recorded temperature of 2.4 degree Celsius on Friday. According to Met officials, Patna had recorded its lowest temperature in 102 years.

In 1901, Patna had recorded its previous low of 2.5 degree Celsius.

A cold wave has been sweeping the state for ten days now. The biting cold and icy winds are likely to continue for at least 48 hours, Met officials in Patna said.

The state relief and rehabilitation department has directed the district administration to use public buildings for providing shelter to the poor and homeless at night.

Uttar Pradesh has accounted for the maximum deaths followed by Bihar, Punjab and Haryana even as the cold weather caused a dense fog, leading to poor visibility and paralysed road, rail and air traffic.

In Uttar Pradesh, trains were running two to 12 hours behind schedule. Kanpur continued to shiver as there was no let up in cold wave conditions in the industrial town.

The mercury plummeted below freezing point in Churu as the cold wave maintained its grip over Rajasthan. Churu recorded a low of minus one degree Celsius, Pilani one degree Celsius, Bikaner two and Ganganagar three degrees Celsius.

The state is likely to witness chilly weather for two more days, the Met office said.

Fog continued to play spoilsport in Haryana where the mercury dipped to zero degrees Celsius at Narnaul. Ambala at 1.3 degrees Celsius, down six degrees, and Hisar at 4.1 degrees Celsius were slightly better off.

Shimla in Himachal Pradesh was partially cloudy with the night temperature settling at three degrees Celsius. Sundernagar at minus 1.4 degrees and Bhuntar at minus two degrees Celsius reeled under intense cold.

Fog and mist at several places in Punjab and Haryana affected vehicular traffic. Many inter-state buses were reportedly running late while rail traffic was also adversely affected.

With inputs from PTI