Chhattisgarh to allow only 10 people at weddings, funerals due to Covid-19

In view of the grim coronavirus situation, the Chhattisgarh government on Sunday said only 10 persons will be allowed to attend weddings and funerals in the state, while all kinds of religious, social, political, social and other programmes will continue to remain prohibited in the state.

The General Administration Department issued the guidelines to this effect on Sunday for all divisional commissioners (revenue), Inspector General of Police (IGPs), district collectors and Superintendents of Police (SPs).

At present, several districts in the state have set different limits on the number of people allowed at weddings, while some other districts have even cancelled permission for such functions during the lockdown at the local level.

The new guidelines said that in order to put an effective check on the spread of the new variant of coronavirus, there will be a strict ban on the presence of more than ten people in marriage functions and funeral rituals, an official statement said.

There will be a complete ban on all kinds of religious, social, political and other programmes across the state, it said.

The directive said that officials should make an appeal through various religious and community heads to people to avoid crowding in all kinds of religious and social festivals and carry out pooja or other rituals at personal level in their respective houses, it said.

Covid-19 positive persons should comply with the isolation protocol strictly and officials should ensure that such protocols are being adhered to, it added.

Notably, lockdown is in force in all 28 districts of the state for varying period with different relaxations to contain the spread of the infection.

Some districts, which are witnessing a spike in cases, have already cancelled permission granted earlier for weddings during the lockdown period, while some other districts, including Raipur, had already restricted the number of people to attend weddings to 10.

Till Saturday, the state had recorded 8,42,356 Covid- 19 cases, including 10,381 deaths. The number of active cases in the state till Saturday was 1,30,859, officials said.