Kolkata, July 30 - Offices and schools remained shut in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district Thursday to pay homage to Gayatri Devi, the erstwhile maharani of Jaipur.

Gayatri Devi, who died in Jaipur Wednesday at the age of 90, was the daughter of the erstwhile maharaja of Cooch Behar.

All administrative offices, except the treasury and hospitals, and schools and colleges in the district remained closed as Cooch Behar district magistrate S. Mahapatra had declared a public holiday Wednesday as a mark of respect to the departed princess.

The markets also remained closed Thursday.

'We also decided to close all shops and trade outlets in the district to pay respect to our late Maharani Gayatri Devi,' said Rajendra Kumar Boidya, a member of the local business community.