The Maharashtra state home department prevented a congregation similar to the one held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area, which has now become the hotspot for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 spread in India
State home minister Anil Deshmukh said that the two-day religious event was initially approved by the state, but subsequently cancelled the event.
The outfit, Shamim Education and Welfare Society, had formally sought permission from the department for organising a programme, Tablighi Ijtema, near Diwanman village in Vasai West on March 14 and March 15.
The society, while seeking permission, had conveyed to the department that around 50,000 devotees would attend the event in which the Quran was to be recited besides offering of namaz.
According to Deshmukh, permission was given on Feb 5, 2020 but as the number of COVID-19 people started testing positive, the home ministry swing into action and told the organisers to cancel the event on March 6, Deshmukh said.
Sources in the police department said the decision to cancel the permission was taken by Niket Kaushik, Inspector General of Police, Konkan Range along with Palghar superintendent of police Gaurav Singh on March 6.
"Cases of COVID-19 had started growing in the country, there was fear that the infection would spread more through such events, so we took this decision," said Kaushik
Deshmukh further underlined how the Home Ministry in Delhi could have shown such far sightedness and quicker reflexes. “It would have helped avert both the spread of infection and its massive humanitarian fallout.”
“Tablighi Jamaat's event held in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month has caused fear among people across the country as some devotees who attended the programme in the national capital were infected by coronavirus. The situation in Delhi could have been averted had the alertness as shown by the (Maharashtra) state home department was exhibited there,” Deshmukh said.
