Coronavirus concerns to dampen Ganesh festivities in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: In tune with the prevailing scenario due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the city's favourite festival Ganesh Chathurthi is going to be fairly different from previous years. Devotees need to follow the guidelines issued by the government. They should wear masks and maintain social distance to be able to take deity's blessing. Some pandals may take to online darshans to avoid crowding by the devotees.

Keeping the public safety in mind, the Khairatabad Ganesh Committee is even planning to cancel the celebrations this year. Singari Sudarshan, its chairman, said, "Coronavirus has affected the state and the city big time in these times. Conducting a festival which attracts lakhs of devotees will be a big problem; hence, keeping that in mind we had earlier decided to cancel the celebrations. But, the devotees demanded that we should not refrain from festivitities altogether."

"We are in talking terms with the police and government and soon will come to a conclusion. If we conduct the festival we'll go with online pooja and maintain social distancing for darshans," he adds further. Similarly, the Bhagya Nagar Ganesh Samiti has come up with norms to follow during the 11 day Ganesh Chaturthi. The Samithi has also urged the TS state government to sanction the funds for conducting Ganesh festival and asked to take necessary steps in arranging the required security.

Speaking about the same, Bhagvanth Rao, the general secretary of Bhagya Nagar Ganesh Utsav Samitti, said, "The situation is getting severe day by day, thousands of people are testing positive every day. We have requested our organisers to follow all the centre and state Covid-19 guidelines, and follow the social distancing norms and other necessary restrictions for the safety of devotees and organisers."