All places of worship in Maharashtra will reopen for people from Monday, 16 November. This was announced by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday.

The announcement coincided with Diwali celebrations across the country. There has been a growing demand from various quarters to reopen the religious places since they were closed earlier this year due to the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.

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The places of worship include temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras, viharas, fire temples, etc that have been shut since early March.

All Covid-19 protocols like crowd control, physical distancing, sanitising the premises regularly, etc. have to be followed as per the (Standard Operating Procedures) SOPs to be separately issued for the purpose, said Thackeray adding that he had held out on reopening religious places because of the risk to senior citizens who visit them as medical experts believe that elderly people (those above 60) are at a greater risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus.

“When will temples open? They will open soon. After Diwali, we will create SOPs for this. Elderly people visit temples and they are at risk (of contracting Covid). Therefore overcrowding needs to be avoided… be it temples, masjids or any other place,” said Thackeray.

“People are criticising me. I’m ready to face that. I’m cautious for senior citizens. If one Covid-positive person is without a mask, he can infect 400 others, these are doctor’s figures,” he added.

He said even though SOPs would be released later, the wearing of face masks while visiting places of worship in the state would be compulsory. He also laid particular stress on that and warned people that those found without face masks would be fined.

Though certain other states gradually opened up the places of worship, in Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states, they remained shut to avoid further spread of the virus.

In 2020, all major religious festivals like Holi, Gudi Padva, Ramzan, Eid, Dahi Handi, Ganeshotsav, Navroze, Navratri, etc. were celebrated by the people in their homes.

In an unprecedented development, all major organisers of the state’s biggest festival Ganeshotsav cancelled their celebrations this year, while the 250-year-old iconic Mohammed Ali Road street food market remained shut during the holy month of Ramzan.

(With agency inputs)