Religious Places Reopen with Restrictions in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Masks, hand sanitisers and physical distancing marked even prayers in religious places of worship, which opened after almost 80 days in the city.

While temples reopened for darshan to a thin attendance by devotees, that too sans any prasadam distribution, mosques saw regular attendance but with several changes, including the devouts bringing their own prayers rugs and the floors being cleaned multiples times.

In temples, despite it being Monday, the regular rush was missing at Lord Shiva temples across the city. Except for darshan, no other rituals like ‘Archana’ or other sevas were permitted. To ensure physical distancing, foot markings were made in the queue lines while wearing masks was mandatory for devotees to have darshan.

Slowly but steadily, devotees turned up at the Yellamma Temple in Balkampet. Security guards are permitting the devotees only after conducting thermal screening and making them use sanitisers. At the popular Peddamma Gudi temple in Jubilee Hills, the turnout was lukewarm. Nearly 1,000 devotees turned up on Monday against the pre-lockdown average of 5,000 a day, Peddamma Gudi Temple Executive Officer Ambuja Vanga said. “Perhaps there could be some rush on Tuesday and Friday,” she said.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple at Himayathnagar and Jubilee Hills are also witnessed a minimal turnout of devotees.

“Since morning, about 60 to 70 devotees came for darshan per hour at the temples. Except for darshan, no distribution of prasadam and sevas is permitted,” said TTD Assistant Executive Officer U Ramesh. The temples will be closed by 6 pm, he said.

In the city’s mosques meanwhile, prior to every namaz, announcements were made within the mosque to maintain physical distancing.

“Managements of all mosques were asked to follow the instructions issued by the government. No one is being allowed without mask into the mosque. All the washrooms are locked and people have been asked to perform ablutions at home and come,” Mohd Saleem, chairman, Telangana State Wakf Board, said.

Khaja Ali Babar, president of the Rajendranagar Masjid Board Committee, said a meeting was held with all Imams and Muezzins on Sunday with the precautionary measures being explained.

Across the city, masjid committees ensured that mats in the mosques were removed. “We are encouraging people to bring their own prayer rugs. Similarly, the floor is cleaned multiple times in a day,” said Ghulam Yazdani, president of the Masjid-e-Aliya committee. At dargahs too, similar restrictions were in place.

“Only one person is allowed to go into the room where the ‘mazaar’ is located. An iron mesh has been put up around the mazaar to prevent people from touching it or offering rose petals,” said an employee at the Dargah Yousufian, located at Nampally.