Temple authorities in Bengal decide to remain closed till mid June

Kolkata, 30 May (HS):  Even as Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced her decision to  reopen all  religious places in West Bengal from Monday (1 June) with  several  mandatory restrictions for the devotees and  others  to prevent  the spread of  Corona virus, a number of well known and very popular   temple authorities   have decided  not to open their temples at least till 15 June, pending further consultations with the state government.

Though the Chief minister here yesterday announced  that all Temples,Churches, Masjids, Gurdwaras  and all other places of worship in the state would be re opened from  10 a.m. on 1 June and made it clear that  maximum  only 10 devotees  or other people would be allowed to enter their respective religious places at a time and that too by wearing face masks, hand gloves and by maintaining the necessary social distancing among themselves,  a number of Mandir (Temple) Committees have decided not to open their temples at least for the next two weeks  or more depending on the situation related to the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

Announcing their decision  in this regard after a meeting of the Executive members of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple Committee , its General Secretary Kushal Chowdhury  said here this afternoon that  though the Chief minister had allowed them to reopen the Dakshineswar Kali temple, one of the most popular and most visited temples in Eastern India, for the devotees with several restrictions from 1 June,  they had decided not to  re open the temple for the public at the present juncture as the fear of the spread of Corona virus was still very much alive among all.

‘We shall wait at least till 15 June before taking  our decision once again on whether to open Dakshineswat Temple  or remained closed for a few more days  till further normalization of the situation’, Chowdhury  told Hindusthan Samachar over telephone.

Echoing similar concern, President of Tarapith Kali Temple Committee, Tarapada Chattopadhyay  also announced the Committee’s decision  not to open  this another  very famous and popular  Kali Temple  in West Bengal at Tarapith/ Tarakeswar  in Hooghly district, about 60 km from Kolkata.

‘As we expect a huge rush of devotees as soon as we announce the reopening of the temple, it would be  next to impossible for us to  maintain either the necessary social distancing in the temple or keeping the maximum number of devotees at a time to 10, as directed by the Chief minister’, Chattopadhyay said  while reiterating that  they would wait at least till 15 June before taking further decision in this regard.

Moreover, we are  scared about the  sudden spurt in the number of those affected by  the deadly virus not only in Hooghly district but all across the state following the arrival of many migrant workers from outside, he said  in support of the Committee’s decision at the current juncture.

The authorities of the famous  Belur Math on the banks of the river Ganges in Howrah district also decided not to open the Math and the Ramakrishna temple for public at the current juncture for similar reason and  preferred to wait at least till the middle of  next month as a precautionary measure.We are in constant touch with the state government  and had already informed them about our decision, said the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Mission Swami Adaiyatananda.

The famous Ratha Yatra Utsav at Mahesh , also in Hooghly district, which also attracts lakhs of people ar from across the stateevery year,  would also not take place this time for similar apprehension. ‘We are not sure how to stop the arrival of lakhs of people for the famous Ratha Yatra on 5 June at Mahesh and as such have decided not to organize the festivity this year’, said one of the members of the Organsismng Committee.

Though large number of devotees and other frequent visitors of all these famous temples and religious places  were disappointed at the Temple Committees decision to remain closed for at least two more weeks, they have however, welcomed the decisions in  view of the seriousness of the current pandemic situation.