All Places Of Worship, Shopping Malls To Remain Closed In Odisha Till June 30

Bhubaneswar:  All religious places/places of worship for the public will continue to remain closed in Odisha till June 30 in order to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Chief secretary, Odisha government, Asit Tripathy released an order to this effect late on Sunday evening.

Earlier in the day, the Union ministry of culture had said that 820 Archeological Survey of India-protected monuments with places of worship will be allowed to open from Monday, June 8, provided the state governments granted permission.

The list contained 46 monuments of Odisha, including the Jagannath temple in Puri and Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, leading to speculation on whether the state government will allow reopening of the sacred places of worship so early.

Five days ago, chief administrator of the shrine Krishan Kumar Jagannath Temple had said that the Jagannath temple will remain out of bounds for devotees till July 5.

In addition to the places of worship, the Odisha government stated categorically that restrictions will continue to be imposed in other places also, as deemed necessary.

Shopping malls will remain closed till June 30, while restaurants and hotels will be permitted for home delivery/takeaways of food including home delivery of food by aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, etc.