Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath offered prayers at the Gorakhnath Temple on Monday morning as religious places across the country reopened as part of lockdown relaxations.
Lucknow, June 8:
As temples and other religious places across the country reopened in the latest round of lockdown relaxation, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath offered prayers at the Gorakhnath Temple on Monday.
Yogi Adityanath reached the Gorakhnath Math early on Monday morning to offer prayers as the temple opened for the first time in over two months since the nationwide lockdown shut down all religious places.
Yogi Adityanath had reached Gorakhpur on Sunday to inspect the local government hospitals.
Devotees were seen at several prominent temples in Uttar Pradesh. People were seen reaching the Chamunda Temple in Sambhal early morning to offer prayers while devotees were also seen at the Eidgah Mosque and Yahiyaganj Gurdwara in Lucknow, reported ANI.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had issued a set of guidelines to be followed by devotees and authorities for religious places to reopen from Monday. The Uttar Pradesh government had said on Saturday that devotees cannot make any offering of ‘prasad’ nor will be able to to touch statues, idols or holy books in places of worship as and when they visit them after their opening.
In an elaborate guideline, issued on Saturday on relaxation of coronavirus lockdown curbs, the UP government had said that the distribution of prasad or sprinkling of holy water too will not be allowed inside religious places.
The visitors to religious places will have to use their own mats for sitting there and their managing authorities will have to ensure social distancing in shrines, said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi on Saturday while releasing an elaborate guidelines on reopening of religious places, offices, malls, hotels etc outside containment zones.
