Footfall steadily rising at Golden Temple
AMRITSAR : Even as Covid-19 cases continue to mount in Punjab, the footfall of devotees at Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, has been gradually increasing.
Months after the pandemic outbreak, the gurdwara complex is witnessing a considerable number of devotees paying obeisance, taking bath in the holy sarovar, partaking langar and performing sewa (voluntary service), rituals and other religious activities.
The average daily footfall is now around 40,000 and this is slowly increasing, said Mukhtiar Singh, chief manager of the shrine. This figure was ₹1 lakh before the pandemic situation.
Another official of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) said as per the donations made at the sanctum sanctorum, the number of devotees paying obeisance here these days is about 40-50% of the pre-pandemic footfall, and this reached 60% on Saturday, Sunday and some special days. “Before the pandemic, around four donation boxes were used in a day, barring the weekends and other special days. During the complete lockdown, not a single donation box got filled. Now, two such boxes are used. Each box yields around ₹3 lakh. Since international and inter-state movements are partially closed, mostly devotees from Punjab come here. Once the said curbs are lifted, the shrine will see a huge footfall,” he said.
Both the floors of the community kitchen building are being used to serve the langar. Earlier in complete lockdown, only the ground floor was being used, and that too was not fully occupied.
It may be recalled that during the lockdown, average daily footfall had dipped to 1,000.