Bimal Sarkar (45) from Chetla was the first to reach the gates of the Kalighat temple at 4:30am. He was returning after a gap of three months, a part of his daily routine that he dearly missed. He had been keenly following media reports and was elated when they announced the July 1 reopening. The gates opened at 6am to let in the first batch of devotees.
Devotees queued up outside the temple. The temple committee members and cops from the Kalighat police station strictly enforced social distancing norms. Only 10 people were allowed into the temple complex after passing through the sanitization tunnels outside gate No. 2. They were allowed to step in only if they wore masks and their body temperatures were within the safe range.
Devotees had to stand within circles drawn on the ground and follow the trail to reach the Dolmandap. They had to offer their prayers from there. No one was allowed into the garva griha, or sanctum sanctorum. The temple committee felt that as the clearance in the garva griha was just two and a half feet, the mandatory six-feet distance would not be maintained. “No prasad, flowers or charanamrit was offered to anyone,” said Bidyut Haldar, vice-president of the temple committee. .
Among the devotees were newly-weds, Akash and Sneha Gupta from Kolkata. “We got married yesterday and for us this darshan was necessary,” they said. The second batch could enter at 4pm and darshan went on till 6.30pm. Around 150-200 devotees visited the temple on Wednesday
Source:Times of India
