After prolonged lockdown, temples, malls reopen in Telangana

Places of worship and shopping malls reopened in Telangana on Monday after prolonged lockdown, with strict COVID-19 precautionary measures like wearing of masks and maintaining social distance put in place.

Temples reopened across the state except in containment zones and various precautionary measures like social distancing and wearing of masks are being followed, an official of the endowments department told PTI. Temperature of devotees was also checked at all major temples, he said.

Only 'darshan' was allowed and distribution of 'prasadam' was not being carried out, he said. Famous shrines, including the Lord Venkateswara temple in Hyderabad, Sri Rama temple at Bhadrachalam and Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadadri were among those which reopened.

Circles were drawn at some temples for the purpose of maintaining social distance. The government has permitted opening the places of worship, though some might not have reopened mosques as a precautionary measure, according to astate Waqf Board official.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi had requested the faithful to follow certain precautions. "As mosques reopen tomorrow, we'll be eager to pray together again. However, we cannot ignore that #covid19 isn't going anywhere & we should take some precautions: ..." he tweeted on Sunday.

The precautions include encouraging elders and those with chronic illnesses to avoid the mosque, carrying own prayer mats, doing ablutions at home and maintaining distance between two namazis, he had said.

The Methodist Church in India, Hyderabad Regional Conference, has decided not to have Worship Services till June 30 in the church buildings in the interest of peoples health and life, sources said. Online services would, however, continue, they said.

The state government had earlier allowed 'religious places/places of worship for public, along with hotels, restaurants and shopping malls from Monday in areas outside Containment Zones, though lockdown is in force till June 30.

However, the Standard Operating Procedures as prescribed by the government from time to time are to be followed. When contacted, a customer care executive of the Central shopping mall said all three malls in the city have reopened.

Sources in the Hyderabad Metro rail said all the four malls along its route were reopened for the public. Hyderabad Metro rail is a PPP project run by infra major L&T.

"The crowd was moderate and mostly women. They were looking at buying cosmetics and garments," sources at one of the malls said. A senior official of Inorbit Mall at Madhapur said the shopping centre was reopened.