Mumbai: Despite a ban on organising religious programmes, a village Nandani in Solapur district organised an annual yatra (religious congregation) secretly. The yatra was attended by many people without wearing masks or observing social distance.
All went well but an enthusiast youth recorded this video and sent to his friends to impress them which finally resulted in action by police on the villagers.
Nandani, a village 20 km away from Solapur, organise Yatra of Nagamma Devi every year on Akshaya Tritiya. As there is a complete ban on all religious programmes due to the coronavirus pandemic, this village too has decided to cancel the yatra.
But a social worker in this village convinced villagers to organise this yatra only for the residents of the village. “We will not tell any other people so that devotees from other places, villages will not attend,” he told the villagers to which they agreed.
On Saturday night, villagers went to Bhima river with idol of Nagmma Devi placed on a palanquin. The idol was bathed in the river. On Sunday morning, around 150 devotees assembled at the temple and performed puja and other religious rituals.
Those who participated in the yatra neither wore masks nor observed social distancing. While this was happening, a youth could not resist the temptation to record this in his mobile. He later sent this video to his friends just to show off how his villagers are powerful.
“There may be a ban on religious programmes in the world. But our village is great, we organised our annual yatra,” his message reads. Later, this video went viral in Solapur district. The people in other villages took strong objection to this and asked why they are being prohibited from organising such Yatras.