Indian community leaders back oxygen machine appeal

At Telford's Hindu Cultural Resource Centre prayers are being said as the doors reopened for worship with a new priest for the first time this month since the start of the pandemic.

Leaders at the centre, in Bank Road, Dawley, said members of the congregation were keeping abreast of the difficulties in India through relatives, and were themselves complying with UK guidance.

Centre president Surinder Sharma said at the same time efforts were being made to use social media video messages to encourage the population there to take up Covid-19 vaccine offer.

Mr Sharma said: "I have been involved with the inter-faith groups throughout. We have done the same thing here to encourage as many people as possible in this country have the vaccine. It is important.

"As for the situation in India, obviously we have got relatives back home and we are worried and concerned for them. We are using video recordings media such as Whatsapp groups to get the word out to contacts to urge them to have the jab.

"We are supporting an aid appeal from the Indian High Commission in London for donations to acquire some equipment to help with oxygen treatment.

"I know of one person who has had to travel to India recently because his mother passed away. He arrived back in the UK on Sunday and is currently staying in a quarantine hotel in London.

"I know of about six people from the local Hindu community here who have lost their lives due to Covid.

"Everyone is cautious at the moment.

"People have been 100 per cent being adhering to the Government guidelines. There has been no activity in our temple over the past year. It has only reopened in the past week and a half and it has been quiet.

"We think people have reservations about whether the virus is really under control. They're following the guidelines to the letter. I do have some concerns that in June when we hope more restrictions will be lifted, that people will feel confident to return to the temple and donations will start to pick up.

"Like most places of worship which have been closed for 12 months, our income has fallen to zero."

Councillor Kuldip Sahota, of Malinslee and Dawley Bank ward, a Sikh, said a there a mixed picture was being portrayed regarding the situation in India.

"My wife Sukhi has had word from her sister who is in the Punjab-Uttar Pradesh area, the biggest state, that people have been fearful due to the television news reports. They don't want to touch the money, people have stopped visiting relatives and are keeping to themselves.

"Covid hasn't actually reached the villages, but people are hearing that in some other areas the number of funeral pyres you would normally see has gone up from one or two maybe in any given day, to up to dozens and dozens which is making them afraid.

"They are actually crying out for the vaccine in India. It may have been more of an issue in some of the Muslim communities in this country for example, but in over there they are saying "bring on the vaccine".

Meanwhile Lalita Kumari, of the Hindu Cultural Resource Centre, added: "It is really difficult at the moment. The rules in India regarding coronavirus have not been as strict as here. I think the Indian government left it too late to introduce tight restrictions.

"It's not helped that all over the world countries have their own pandemic rules. In some places like here the rules are easing and in others like India it's not."

To support the O2 Concentrators for India appeal see the website https://gofund.me/40bb9ac4

New priest Pundit Dinesh Prasad Bhatt took up his post at the cultural centre in Telford last month.