Devotees can be allowed in temples subject to certain restrictions: Travancore Devaswom Board chief

Travancore Devaswom Board President N Vasu on Saturday hailed the state government's decision to reopen the temples from June 8 and said that devotees can be allowed in the temples subject to certain restrictions.

Speaking to Vasu said, "We welcome the government's decision of reopening the temples however we have suggested to stick to the rules of social distancing. We had a discussion with Chief Minister yesterday. We suggested that devotees can be allowed subject to certain restrictions. We proposed that in temples other than Sabarimala the maximum numbers of devotees that can be allowed at a time is 10."

He said that all the devotees should wear masks and there won't be any 'Annadnam'.

"There should be a facility for stisation. All devotees should wear masks. Children below 10 and people above 65 years can't be allowed. There won't be any 'Annadanam', we can't allow the usual way of giving 'Prasadam'," Vasu told .

Earlier on Friday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that places of worship, shrines, shopping malls, hotels, hospitality units, restaurants and offices in Kerala will be open to the public from June 9.

These places can open on June 8 for cleng and disinfecting, and make arrangements to receive the public from the next day.

"The Kerala government has decided to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Central government to open up these places," Vijayan said.

People aged over 65 and children below 10 are advised to stay at home as per the central guidelines. "Use of masks, handwashing with soap, use of stizers, wherever possible; maintaining six feet distance, thermal checking of temperature, maintenance of registers, and separate entry and exit points are some of the general guidelines mentioned in the SOP issued by the central government," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )