Coronavirus: Major Maharashtra temples shut after influx of devotees

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, March 16

Major temples in Maharashtra like the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai and the Tuljabhavani temple at Osmanabad have shut their doors to the public with immediate effect after reporting a surge in devotees over the last weekend.

The trustees of the two temples after a meeting with officials from the health department took the decision to shut the shrines till March 31.

“More than 13,000 devotees visited the Tuljabhavani shrine on Sunday and it was decided to shut the temple for reasons of public health,” the managing committee said in a statement today.

Trustees of the Saibaba Sansthan at Shirdi were yet to decide on closing the shrine to devotees.

Maharashtra’s richest shrine continues to attract a large number of worshippers. On Monday, the trustees put out a request asking pilgrims to postpone their visit by a few days on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray government is mulling issuing a notification asking religious events to be curtailed on account of the pandemic.

Several religious denominations, including the Catholic Church, have scaled down their activities.

The Maharashtra Government is also planning to stamp people asked to be quarantined at home so that they do not mingle with the general public.

As per the proposal, a stamp with the identity number would be put on the left hand of the person asked to be quarantined at home. 

The stamping is proposed to be done with indelible ink used during elections, according to officials.

According to media reports, several persons asked to quarantine themselves at home stepped out for shopping or asked relatives to come over.

Uddhav announces measures as Maharashtra records over 30 cases

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav  Thackeray on Monday asked district collectors to ensure there is no crowding at religious sites in view of the novel coronavirus threat, though worship there may continue.

Announcing several measures to stop the spread of the virus after a review meeting here, Thackeray directed that political events, meetings etc not take place.

He said foreign tours have been banned and gram panchayat and other local body meetings have been postponed.

From Tuesday, measures will be in place to stop the flow of people into Mantralaya, the state’s secretariat in south Mumbai, the CM informed.

Thackeray also ordered the closure of schools in rural areas, and instructed officials to place sanitisers and soaps in public toilets, as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus threat. PTI