A three-hour Dolotsav event was held at Bekar bandh pond in Dhanbad on Friday.

More than 80 people danced to the tune of Rabindra sangeet, played holi with palash flowers and herbal gulal and participated in kirtan.

The celebration began with a prabhat pheri taken out at around 7am followed by an hour-long kirtan performance by a 20 member team of ISKCON Dhanbad led by Damodar Govind Das.

Members of Bengali Association smear gulal on each other. Gautam Dey

Children dance and play holi Gautam Dey

A two hour cultural programme included Rabindra Sangeet performance by participants belonging to different local dance groups of Dhanbad and Jharia like Parul dance academy, Sompa Mukherjee dance group and Saswati dance academy enthralled people with their dance performance to tune of popular songs like bakul gandhe bonya elo; rangiye diye jao; laglo je dol; ore bhai phagun legechhe and danriye achho tumi amar.

Dhanbad Mayor Chandrashekhar Agarwal was the chief guest at the programme along with wife Veena Agarwal. He handed out prizes to winners of a lucky draw organised by Chandan Studio.

“The entire scene of Dolotsav of Shantiniketan came to life in Dhanbad today and me and my wife really enjoyed the programme,” the mayor said.

Women play with herbal gulal during the Dolotsav celebration at Rajender Sarovar Park in Bekar Bandh in Dhanbad. Gautam Dey

A flower jewelry making contest was held among couples in which Santosh Das, an officer of SBI general insurance was adjudged the winner for making the best jewelry for his wife Savanti Sarkar.

Savanti Sarkar told The Telegraph Online:“Besides working in an insurance company I am also associated with Shaswati Mukherjee and managed time for dance rehersals which is my passion and enjoyed the programme held today on the line of Dolotsav held at Shantiniketan”.

“Our joy was doubled with my husband winning the jewelry making competition,” she said.