Vijayawada: Durga temple cancels all Arjita Sevas

Vijayawada: Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy temple stalled all kinds of Arjita Sevas from Thursday morning in view of coronavirus threat in the State.

Temple trust board chairman Pyla Sominaidu and EO Suresh Babu told media that the temple administration has cancelled the lift and bus services as part of measures to check the spread of coronavirus. They said queue lines and other premises were being cleaned up every two hours.

They appealed to the people to cooperate with the temple administration. They suggested that elderly people, children and pregnant women abstain from visiting temple till March 31. The temple staff are checking the temperature of all devotees with thermal guns near the queue lines and allowing only those devotees who have normal temperature.

Durga temple is the second biggest temple in Andhra Pradesh and thousands of devotees visit the temple every day. But, due to the impact of coronavirus, the number of devotees visiting the temple is gradually declining for the past few days.

Now, the temple administration decided to allow the devotees from only two lines free darshan and Rs100 ticket darshan only and asking devotees to maintain five feet distance in queue lines.