Aurangabad, Nov 15:
The Maharashtra government has decided to open all religious places in the state from Monday. Devotees will be able to enter religious places after 8 months. Preparations for being done in temples, gurdwaras, churches, mosques and monasteries in the city on Sunday. The concerned priests said that religious places will be opened as per the rules decided by the government.
Sunday preparations in mosques
During the visit at Bhadkalgate and Jama Masjid on Sunday, the volunteers of the Masjid committee were seen making preparations. Physical distance, masks and sanitizers will be used while performing Namaz. Maulana Moiz Farooqi of Jama Masjid said that there was no doubt that religious places would be started within the framework set by the government.
Morning and evening religious programs at the Gurudwara
Devotees will be admitted to the gurdwaras at Osmanpura, Sindhi Colony, Dhavani Mohalla from Monday as per the rules. Religious programs are organized in every Gurudwara from 5 am to 8 am. Women and men have separate seating arrangements. This will now include physical distancing. Religious programs are held for two to two and a half hours from 6.35 pm. In the past, 200 devotees used to come to the program, but now 100 devotees will come following the guidelines, said Gyani Gurudev Singhji, chief priest of Gurudwara Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Langar Saheb in Sindhi Colony.
Cleaning and seating arrangements in the church
The work of cleaning the church premises in the city, arranging seating for the devotees by keeping a safe distance and other preparations were being done on Sunday. Reverend Ranjan Rathore, Priest in-charge of Christ Church, assistant priest Rev S S Battise as well as the priest in charge of St Philip Church S Y Ghule and assistant priest Rev Akshay S Ghule with the help of pastoral committee office bearers, volunteers and the youths cleaned the church premises. They also tested sound systems, CCTV and electrical equipment. Sanitation facility is also being arranged. Although the church has a seating capacity of about 400 and the outer premises has a seating capacity of about 500, only a few chairs have been installed to follow distancing. No more people will be admitted at once than the seating arrangement and without masks. Instructions to obey government orders have been put up on the church billboards.