JOIN USUnlock 1.0: Worship centres, malls, hotels reopen in Kerala amid political spat
Even as malls, restaurants and many worship centres reopened for public after the lockdown on Tuesday amid a political spat, the number of persons who turned up was very low.
The famed Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple in Thrissur, which used to have thousands of devotees daily, had only around 90 devotees on Tuesday even as 288 persons availed online token for darshan. Around 160 persons booked for online token for darshan on Wednesday and around 400 on Thursday, said temple officials.
While Sabarimala Ayyappa temple is scheduled to allow devotees as the temple opens on June 14, the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram had revoked its decision to allow devotees from today and to maintain status quo till June 30. A major section of churches, mosques and hotels preferred not to allow public till June 30.
All worship centres, malls and hotels that allowed public were strictly following social distancing norms.
Meanwhile, the political spat between the BJP and the ruling CPM in Kerala over opening temples was hotting up with the former reiterating demand to revoke the decision to reopen worship centres for public.
Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was having dubious intentions in allowing devotees at temples. The government was concerned over revenues from temples and not devotees. It is suspected that the government was trying to put the blame on devotees for COVID spike in Kerala as the governments efforts to contain COVID were now failing. Even as the centre issued general guidelines on allowing temples to reopen for public, state governments could take its own stands, he said.
Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran flayed that the Muraleedraran was even unaware of centre's relaxation on lockdown norms.
Meanwhile, Congress state leadership also accused that the state government had shown haste in reopening worship centres.