The Meghalaya government on June 9 kept its earlier decision on hold to allow reopening places of worship from June 14 following steady rise of COVID-19 positive cases in the state.
This decision was taken at a consultation meeting chaired by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma with religious leaders of various faiths.
“We had a meeting with leaders from different religious faiths and decided to rescinded the earlier decision to allow reopening places of worship from June 14 following steady rise of COVID-19 positive cases in the state,” Sangma said.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.
Furthermore, the chief minister informed that majority of the leaders of churches, temples, mosques, and other religious organizations felt that the decision of opening places of worship should be postponed.
“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.
