Kolkata, Mar 14 (PTI) Hundreds of tourists assembled at the popular Sonajhuri Haat in West Bengal's Santiniketan on Friday on the occasion of Dol Jatra to celebrate the festival of colours.

The authorities posted around 500 police personnel in the around one-km stretch. However, they did not intervene in the festival, 'Vasanta Utsab' as it is called in Santiniketan,

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A senior police official said there were no curbs on people celebrating Holi anywhere in Santiniketan and Bolpur belt and no restrictions were imposed by the forest department.

There was a controversy after the forest department asked people not to observe the event there.

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However, in the wake of the BJP's claim that the Mamata Banerjee government has banned Holi celebrations at Sonajhuri Haat to appease a particular community, Forest Minister Birbaha Hansda on Thursday clarified that her department did not enforce any ban but only requested visitors to be cautious while celebrating the festival of colours.

The festival of colours has been organised locally in Sonajhuri Haat for the past few years, after Visva Bharati university stopped public participation in its spring festival, Vasanta Utsab, after 2019 to protect its campus area.

A huge number of outsiders had gathered in Santiniketan that year on the occasion of Vasanta Utsav, a major cultural event in the institute.

While the festival was not held in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the university authorities did not organise it.

This year, Visva-Bharati celebrated the Basanta Utsab on March 11.

The festival is held inside the campus of the central university in Birbhum district for ages. The festival was started by Rabindranath Tagore, the original founder of the institute, and it attracts thousands of visitors from outside.

UNESCO had accorded World Heritage Status to Santiniketan in 2023.

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