Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has allowed all places of worship in the State to remain open for devotees on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Earlier places of worship in the State were only kept open from Monday to Thursday.
Public would be permitted on beaches on Sundays from 1 November onwards. Considering that people need to shop for essentials during the festive season, all shops, restaurants and bakeries permitted earlier would be allowed to function until 11 pm, Chief Minister M K Stalin said in a statement.
The government has also allowed schools, including kindergarten schools and anganwadis to re-open with fully vaccinated staff and cooks. Private tuition centres can also open from 1 November.
The decision comes after the Madras High Court on Tuesday granted liberty to the State government to decide on keeping the temples open on Friday on which Vijayadasami falls.
The Tamilnadu government had told the high court that the restrictions were imposed following a communication from the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in September in view of the rise in new cases of Covid-19.
Stalin’s announcement came a week after the Opposition, led by BJP, carried out State-wide protests against the weekend curbs. BJP’s state chief K Annamalai had called the restrictions as a sign of the ruling party, DMK, imposing its ‘atheist ideology’.