Low turnout at religious sites on reopening after 75-day lockdown

Varanasi: Kashi Vishwanath temple, which used to see over 10,000 footfall of devotees per day, witnessed a meagre turnout of around 150 people only to offer prayers on its reopening after 75-day Covid-19 lockdown on Tuesday.
Though many prominent temples, mosque, gurudwara and other religious sites were opened, many temples including Sankat Mochan and Kaal Bhairo temple could not be opened as they were not ready as per the SOP prescribed by the state government.
The doors of the temple were opened for the devotees after Mangla Aarti inside sanctum sanctorum of Kashi Vishwanath temple at wee hours. Temple’s chief executive officer Vishal Singh said that till late afternoon around 150 devotees had arrived the temple.
As per the SOP for crowd management only the devotees wearing masks were allowed to enter through Chhattadwar (gate-4) and queue up by standing inside the circles drawn for maintaining social distancing. Before entering the main temple complex all the devotees were asked to sanitise hands. Singh said that number of devotees inside temple complex never exceeded the number of five at a time while devotees were allowed to offer prayers from outside the sanctum sanctorum by having darshan of the Jyotirlinga through its doors before leaving the temple through Dhundhiraj gate.
No one was allowed to touch anything including bells inside the temple. Singh said that low turnout of people was expected as only locals came to the temple while in normal days KVT remains crowded with outstation pilgrims, he said adding, the average footfall of devotees in non-festive seasons remains around 10,000 while on special occasions the volume goes above 1.50 lakh.
Similar, scene was evident at temple of Goddess Annapurna. District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said that low turnout at these temples was a good sign indicating the level of awareness of people about necessary precautions.
Apart from KVT and Annapurna temple, the Nadesar mosque, Gurudwara near Chowk police station, Guru Brihaspati temple, Tilbhandeshwar temple, Baba Kinaram Ashram and temple, Gauri Kedareshwar temple and Shooltankeshwar Mahadev temple were also opened.
ADM City VK Singh said that as per the check list prepared after going through the SOP forms furnished by the authorities of the religious sites these places were found ready to be opened. Kaal Bhairo temple could not open on Tuesday as the temple authorities could not finalise the SOP and crowd management plan in narrow streets leading to the temple.
ADM City said that based on information provided in their SOP forms all the four multiplexes and 56 hotels were cross checked by the teams led by magistrates concerned after which they were permitted to reopen.