Mumbai: Religious minority groups, including Catholics and Parsis, are happy about the inclusion of their shrines in the list of pilgrimage centres added to the Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan Yojana that will offer senior citizens free travel to these sites.

In July 2024, the Maharashtra government had announced the scheme with travel facilities to 139 pilgrimage centres in the country, including 66 in Maharashtra. The list also includes 15 places in Mumbai like the Siddhivinayak and Mumbadevi temples, St John the Baptist Church ruins in SEEPZ, and the Magen David synagogue in Byculla.

In a Government Resolution last week, the government announced the inclusion of a few more religious sites. This includes the Mother Mary shrine at Velankanni, Tamil Nadu, and the Iranshah at Udvada, Gujarat, which enshrines the holiest fire of the Parsi-Zoroastrians. The additional list also includes Chaityabhoomi in Dadar, the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial in Dadar which is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists and Dalits.

The non-inclusion of some prominent religious sites in the July list had let to criticisms that the scheme an election gimmick. There were also allegations that shrines belonging to some religious groups were underrepresented. The additions include the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai and the Haji Malang shrine near Ambarnath in Thane district.

Catholics and Parsi groups had written to the government to include their religious sites under the scheme. The Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, an association of the Catholic East Indian community, had petitioned the government for the inclusion of the

Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health Velankanni in the list. Gleason Baretto of the MGP said that they were thankful to former Member of Legislative Assembly Krishna Hegde for meeting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to add Velankanni under the Pilgrimage Scheme.

"We also thank all the Velankanni devotees for their prayers to fulfill senior citizens dream of visiting the holy shrine," said Baretto.

There were similar reactions among Parsis. "Parsis must take advantage of the scheme to visit sites of minority pilgrimage," said Dr Viraf Kapadia, a resident of Godrej Baug, Napeanea Road.

Under this scheme people above 60 years will be funded by the state government upto Rs.30,000 towards food, stay and travel. Applications will be selected by a lottery. Nodal offices will be set up to organise the trips. Authorised travel companies will conduct trips by road while train journeys will be managed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited.

Beneficiaries under the scheme will have to fulfill several conditions, including annual family incomes below Rs 2.5 lakh. Members of families of government employees and current and former elected representatives in public administrative bodies are ineligible. People who are physically unfit to travel are also not eligible.