Two ancient and famous temples of Jharkhand are making foolproof arrangements before opening gates for devotees on Thursday.

At the Ma Chhinnamastika temple in Rajrappa, Ramgarh and the Ma Bhadrakali temple in Itkhori, masks will be made mandatory for entry and priests have been asked not to touch devotees or apply tilaks on their foreheads.

Subdivisional officer of Ramgarh Keerthishree G reached the Chhinnamastika temple on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

She passed directives to the temple committee, asking them to follow social distancing norms during darshan.

SDO Keerthishree G at Ma Chhinnamastika temple in Ramgarh Vishvendu jaipuriar

Priests said only 150 devotees will get entry into the temple, besides a hundred in the temple campus.

Only five people can enter the sanctum sanctorum at a time, they added.

Priests Subhashis Panda and Asim Panda of the temple committee said all devotees will be sanitised properly at the entrance gate before entering.

Deputy commissioner Sandip Singh said a police team along with a magistrate will be deployed at each gate to take action against those flouting Covid guidelines.

At the Bhadrakali temple, devotees have been asked to enter from the main gate but leave the campus through a different gate leading towards the Mahotsava ground.

Entrance of Ma Bhadrakali Temple in Chatra Vishvendu Jaipuriar

Each and every devotee will have to go through a temperature check before entering.

The temple management committee led by secretary Baidyanath Kamti, who is also circle officer of Itkhori, asked priests as well as devotees to come for darshan wearing masks. He added that with the coronavirus raging, it is best to follow guidelines so as not to get infected.

Sellers of puja paraphernalia outside the 9th-century temple were directed not to sell anything to people without a mask on.

A man from Bihar’s Nalanda, Kamlesh Yadav scaled 1575 feet to reach on the top of Kauleshwari Pahad in Hunterganj, Chatra, carrying his 100-year-old mother on his shoulders so they may worship the goddess.

The hill is has several ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples.

Yadav said his mother was eager for darshan, so he carried her on his shoulders and climbed the stairs from foothill to the very top.

“We prayed outside the locked temple and my mother is now happy and satisfied, so we are going back to Nalanda,” he said.