Religious places gear up to reopen, wait for govt guidelines

JAIPUR: Religious places in the state are gearing up to open their gates for the devotees again, as they wait for the state government’s guidelines for it. The management committees and priests of famous religious places in the state said that they will follow every guideline by the government related to temples, gurudwaras, mosques and churches. Many of them have already started installing ‘no touch’ water taps and making sanitisers available.
BM Sharma, general secretary of Kholey Ke Hanumanji temple in the city, was of the view that until the state is witnessing Covid-19 cases, no offerings should be allowed at the temples.
“We also decided not to allow the devotees to offer sweets in the temple and we too will not give them any prasad (offering) in return. Also, we will have separate entry and exit for the temple and at the entry point, every single devotee will have to go through thermal screening and sanitisation,” Sharma said while talking to TOI.
Mahant Kailash, priest of the famous Moti Doongri temple, said, “We are waiting for the guidelines by state government. Also, our temple, whenever it will be opened, would be opened from 5am to 9pm, so people can come in smaller numbers at different times and we will maintain social distancing.”
The management committee of Mehandipur Balaji in Dausa said that with the help of local administration including police, the guidelines would be followed. “We can’t do it single handedly as we need support from the administration,” said Mahant Naresh Puri of Mehandipur Balaji temple.
However, Mahaveer Prasad, priest of Salasar Balaji temple in Churu believes that temples should remain closed for some more time. “I believe for everyone’s safety, religious places can remain closed for another month. At a religious place, we also find people who are going for a surgery and they come to seek blessings, how will you stop them?”
On the other hand, Naeem Qureshi, of the management committee of Jama Masjid, Jaipur too has planned on ensuring social distancing. “If we have a capacity of 1,000 people for a namaz, we will ensure entry of not more than 125 people. Also, we will suggest people to offer a portion of the namaz at the mosque and some portions at home so that it takes lesser time and give us time to accommodate more people for the namaz.”
At Raja Park, the Punjabi community have arranged for ‘no touch’ sanitiser and hand washing machines. “We will not allow any offerings. We have ample arrangement for hand washing and sanitising. In these tough times, we have no option other than following rules,” said president of Raja Park gurudwara management committee.
Father Varkey of St. Xavier’s church said that they will wait for the state’s guidelines and will work and plan according to that.