Golden Temple may prohibit devotees' visit in wake of corona scare: Cong MP

By Ashoke Raj
New Delhi,(India), Mar 17,(ANI): Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla on Tuesday indicated that the Golden Temple in Punjab's Amritsar, which is considered as one of the holiest places of Sikhs, is likely to impose a ban on pilgrims' visit in view of coronavirus scare, which has claimed three lives in the country so far.
Speaking to ANI, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar, Aujla said the concerned authority of the Golden Temple is planning to prevent large gatherings.

"Retreat at Wagah is already closed and now, the concerned authorities of the Golden Temple are planning to curtail the crowd at the Golden Temple as this virus spreads through person to person contact. We are totally unaware about the way virus is coming and persons who may be carrying the deadly virus. Therefore, precautions are the only way to deal with coronavirus, and the situation may worsen in the coming days, which may force us to quarantine ourselves in the house like many foreign countries," Aujla said.
Stressing on the need of taking all precautionary measures to stop the spread of deadly coronavirus, the Congress legislator said he will write a letter to the Golden Temple authority in this regard and urged them to prevent people's entry in view of coronavirus.
"I am going to write a letter to Golden Temple authority for stopping devotees due to coronavirus. The virus is not related to any religion," he said.
Restrictions on the entry of devotees are already in place in prominent temples like Mahakal Temple in Ujjain and Sidhivinayak and Shirdi in Maharashtra.
He further emphasised on the way the hotel and tourism industries are being badly affected due to coronavirus and requested the government to provide some relaxation to the hotel owners and tourism industry to pay their loans. (ANI)