With barely any face masks & no social distancing in place, nearly 5 lakh people gathered at Barsana town, about 25 km from Mathura, to mark Lathmar Holi on March 23. For the first time, the state government had funded the event, which saw 1 lakh more people turn up than at last year’s celebrations. “In 2020, about 4 lakh people had turned up, a lot less than this year’s 5 lakh,” local intelligence unit inspector Pradeep Sharma told The Times Of India. This year, just as UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced tighter Covid-19 norms amid rising cases in the state, the Lathmar Holi celebrations were taken a notch higher. To manage the crowds, district authorities said, they had put protocols in place. Once inside, however, masks and caution were abandoned as people fell over each other, grabbed one another to smear colours & danced to music. Watch the video to know more.
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