Rajasthan celebrates Holi with gaiety

Jaipur, Mar 14 (PTI) Holi was celebrated with great enthusiasm across Rajasthan on Friday.
    People thronged the streets, dancing to drum beats, and applied gulal (traditional colours) on each other across the cities.
    Wearing clothes streaked in festive colours, they visited friends and relatives to exchange greetings and smear gulal on each other's faces.
    The gaiety of Holi was seen in temples too. Gulal Holi was played in the famous Govind Devji temple in Jaipur.
    In colonies, women and children played Holi throughout the day, throwing gulal and squirting coloured water at each other with pichkaris (water guns).
    Foreign tourists, who visited the state during the festival, joined in. Several foreigners were seen celebrating Holi in the walled city of Jaipur. In Pushkar too, tourists were seen dancing in groups and playing with colours.
    Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma played Holi with common people at his official residence, where a grand programme was organised. Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani, BJP leader Rajendra Singh Rathore and other political leaders played Holi with people in their respective areas.
    More than 5,000 policemen were deployed to maintain law and order in the capital city of Jaipur. Police patrolled the city to check instances of hooliganism.
    They said no untoward incident was reported in the state and the festival was played peacefully.
    Meanwhile, about 40 people fell sick after consuming Bhang in Pushkar and were rushed to hospital, they said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)