All the religious places in Maharashtra will be open for general public from Wednesday, which is also the first day of Navratri. The decision for temple reopening was taken after CM Uddhav Thackeray’s meeting with the task force earlier in September.
Among other temples, Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple will also reopen tomorrow for devotees. The nine-day-long Navratri festival begins on October 7. All devotees will be allowed only through pre-booking QR codes on Temple Trust?s app. Only 250 devotees to be issued QR codes every hour for darshan, the temple trust informed. The visitors will have to follow the Covid 19 protocol.
Major Temples to Reopen
Devotees will also get entry inside the Shirdi Sai Baba and Shani Shingnapur temples from Thursday. At least 15,000 devotees who possess online passes will be allowed to entry on a daily basis at the Saibaba temple in Shirdi in Maharashtra?s Ahmednagar district, a senior district official said on Tuesday.
Mumbai’s Mumba Devi temple will also open from October 7. The temple will open for fully vaccinated devotees while the unvaccinated devotees will have to show a Covid-19 negative certificate. Further, flowers, garlands and prasad will remain prohibited.
No Garba Events Allowed
The Mumbai civic body also said that no ?garba? events will be allowed during the Navratri festival and capped the height of Goddess Durga idols to four feet for community mandals and two feet for household ones. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) urged citizens to scrupulously follow COVID-19 protocols and keep celebrations low-key in view of the pandemic as it issued guidelines and standard operating procedure (SOP) for the nine-day-long Navratri festival which begins on October 7.
Garba is a popular folk dance of Gujarat which is performed by devotees during the Navratri festival. Mandals should arrange online darshan of idols to avoid crowding and use Facebook and other social media platforms to reach out to devotees, he said.
Kolkata Metro Service Extended
Meanwhile in Kolkata, the metro services have been extended till 11pm in view of the festive season. For crowd management, more frequency of trains will run in the evening with one metro running every 6 minutes. The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation will also deploy RPF and station staff for managing crowd.
However, the West Bengal government has decided to cancel the annual Durga Puja carnival for the second year in a row owing to the ongoing coronavirus disease. It has also banned all forms of cultural programmes near the marquees in view of the coronavirus crisis. Puja committees have been asked to ensure that all pandals are kept open on all sides, thereby allowing ample space to arrange for social distancing when people come for pandal hopping and idol viewing on premises.
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