Covid restrictions imposed at Tripureswari Temple
As the Corona surge remains unabated in Tripura, restrictions have been, once again, imposed at Tripureswari Temple, one of the auspicious 51 pithas from Thursday.
“As per the directives of the State Government, restrictions have been re-imposed at Matabari Tripureswari Temple. Distribution of Anna Bhog among the devotees has been suspended until further notice”, sources said mentioning the order of the DM of Gomati District.
However, the Tripureswari Temple will remain open and priests will perform puja maintaining social distancing. Distribution of symbolic blessings of Maa Tripureswari and Charanamritya has been suspended in view of emerging situation.
Notably, Tripureswari Temple remained closed during Covid outbreak in last year. As the second wave of Covid has already hit the State, the Government has not issued any order pertaining to temporary closure of temples, mosques and churches in the State, so far. However, strict implementation of Covid appropriate behavior at all religious places has been emphasized.
While, restrictions have been imposed at the temple, the premises especially shops from where devotees buy puja materials remains chaotic. Local traders demanded that proper steps should be taken to sanitize the premises regularly as devotees from different parts of the State come to visit the temple regularly.
Considering loss of business, local traders are not favouring temporary closure of the Temple like previous year. “Due Covid outbreak in 2020, Temple remained closed and we suffered. Poor workers of the famous Peda shops were the worst victims. Within a year, another closure of the temple in this time will further inflict financial distress on the shop owners as well as workers”, local traders said.
They, however, demanded strict implementation of Covid protocols like maintaining social distancing and regular sanitization drives at the temple premises and supported Government’s decision to withhold the Anna Bhog distribution for the time being.