Temples, other religious places reopened in Himachal Pradesh

Hamirpur (HP), Jul 1(UNI) All religious places of the state, including temples, reopened on Thursday morning under strict enforcement of the Standard operating procedures framed by the Himachal government.
The temples were opened at 0500 hrs sharp with aartis and cleaning the idols of the deities with the pious water of the river Ganga.
These temples (religious places) were closed early in April this year after the sudden surge in the COVID-19 activities for the second waves in the state and had to remain closed as the activities shot up speedily.
The unlocking process had started as the number of the active cases started dipping and now it has opened the religious places and government offices but with proper enforcement of the COVID-19 guidelines.
According to an official spokesman, a large number of pilgrims were seen standing in queues to have the glimpse of the deities and to make offerings in cash and kind and to seek their blessings.
He said that as per government guidelines devotees were not allowed to go nearby the garvh grihas ( internal sanctoriums) of the temples.
He said that the Medical officers were deployed near the shrines and every devotee was allowed to enter the temples only after thermal scanning’s and making their entries into the registers.
The spokesman said that if any devotee was would found with symptoms of flu and ILI he/she would be isolated and given proper treatment.
In Hamirpur district, the World famous temple of Baba Balak Nath, the incarnation of Lord Karthikeya, the son of Lord Shiva opened amid fanfare today morning with the temple priests holding aartis there. However, devotees were not allowed to go near the cave. They had the darshan of the idol of the Babaji kept in the cave from a platform that was earlier meant for the darshan of Babaji by the women. For the second time in the history of the temples, men and women had a glimpse of the Babaji from the same platform.
Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, Debasweta Banik said that the temple opened today and there was a rush of the devotees in the temple to pay their obeisance to the Babaji.
She said that people were wearing face masks and maintaining social distance while entering the temple campus.
The Deputy Commissioner appealed to the people to maintain the COVID-19 guidelines in totality for their own wellbeing and welfare so that there was no repeating of the COVID -19 activities in the district.
Meanwhile, all the government offices opened with full strength today as per the latest government orders. Earlier, they were working on a fifty percent attendance basis and fifty percent of employees were working online from their homes.