The Maharashtra state government on Saturday notified that all the religious places and places of worship will be opened from Monday. But the concerned authorities of the religious places will have to adopt SOP’s while opening the religious places and they can add any directions in these guidelines taking into consideration the local conditions. Devotees will have to follow these guidelines with great responsibility whenever they enter the premises of the religious places.
The long wait of Devotees in Maharashtra to visit the religious places will be finally over tomorrow but they will have to follow the strict guidelines issued by the state government. Persons above 65 years of age, persons with comorbidities, pregnant women and children below the age of 10 years are advised to stay at home.
While the use of face mask or covers is mandatory devotees will have to maintain the safe distance of minimum six feet as far as feasible. Before entering the religious places they will have to wash their hands and feet with soap and the authorities will have to provide the alcohol based sanitizers in the premises and at the entrance of the places and will have to do the thermal scanning of devotees. Touching of statues, idols and holy books are not allowed. Choir or singing groups are not allowed.
Physical offerings like Prasad and distribution or sprinkling of holy water is also prohibited. Crowd control, effective sanitization of the places and Covid 19 protocol for worship place workers and pre joining and weekly covid 19 tests are mandatory. The responsibility lies on authorities as well as devotees to follow these guidelines as well as many other guidelines for the safety of everyone.