Shillong, June 9: The Meghalaya government made a U-turn on Tuesday regarding its earlier decision to allow re-opening of all places of worship in the state.
The state government had on June 5, decided together with leaders of various religious organisations that all places of worship can re-open from June 14;
However, another consultative meeting between the state government and representatives of religious organisations held on Tuesday withdrew the decision taken on June 5, following rise of COVID-19 positive cases in the State.
The consultative meeting was chaired by Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma.
The Chief Minister said that majority of the leaders of churches, temples, mosques, and other religious organizations felt that the decision to re-open all places of worship should be postponed for now.
“We had a meeting with leaders from different religious faiths and decided to rescinded the earlier decision to allow reopening places of worship from June 14 following steady rise of COVID-19 positive cases in the State,†Sangma said.
He said this was the second such meeting with the objective of discussing the way forward with the places of worship.
“Also keeping in mind that the state has always maintained that health would be a priority, and keeping in mind that we are still having a number of people who are stranded outside the state who are coming back. Keeping all these factors in mind we felt that at this point in time we need to revisit the decision and accordingly, based on majority view we have decided that we will not be opening up places of worship till the end of this month,†Sangma said.
The Chief Minister said that further consultation on the matter would be held before deciding on the way forward viz-a-viz reopening of places of worship in the state.
All places of worship in the state have been closed for the past two months owing to the national lockdown to combat against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infact, the state government has come out with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and circulated the same to all religious organizations.
Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong told reporters that the decision to rescinded the June 5 decision to re-open places of worship considering the rise in COVID-19 cases in the State.
“All the religious leaders accepted the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and were also ready to implement but with the rise in cases and after thorough discussion they asked the government not to reopen,” he added.
Meghalaya has registered 40 COVID-19 positive cases, including 26 active, one death and 13 recoveries as on Tuesday.
During the consultation, Tynsong informed that the religious leaders also submitted the views of their respective believers and followers that they are not in favour of reopening the places of worship as of now.
Asked if the decision taken by the government on June 5 was hasty, the Deputy Chief Minister revealed that the religious leaders themselves had proposed the reopening then.
