Gandhinagar, March 3 (IANS) Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday extended his greetings to the people on the festival of Holi-Dhuleti and urged citizens to celebrate in a manner that safeguards the environment.
In his message on the occasion of the festival of colours, the Chief Minister said: "Holi may fill the lives of people with happiness, prosperity and enthusiasm."
He described Holi as a festival symbolising the victory of truth over falsehood and said, "It conveys the message of meeting one another with affection, forgetting differences and strengthening social harmony."
Patel also appealed to citizens to celebrate the festival collectively while ensuring that environmental protection remains a priority.
Alongside the Chief Minister’s message, a women's self-help group in Ahmedabad has drawn attention for promoting chemical-free celebrations by producing natural colours for Holi.
Led by Surbhiben, the group has combined traditional practices with simple scientific methods to prepare gulal using natural ingredients.
The colours are made entirely from natural materials, with arrowroot flour used as the base. To create red colour, rose petals and beetroot are crushed to extract their juice, which is then mixed with the flour.
Yellow is prepared from marigold and amaltas flowers along with a pinch of turmeric.
Green is derived from spinach and moringa leaves, with a small quantity of food colour added if required.
For saffron shades, tesu flowers are boiled, and the coloured water is used in the preparation process.
Blue colour is made using aparajita flowers along with food colour. The blended mixture is turned into a pulp-like consistency, dried, ground, and sieved to obtain a soft gulal powder.
Last year, the group sold between 60 and 70 kilograms of natural colours and earned more than Rs 10,000.
Several housing societies placed bulk orders of around five kilograms each for community celebrations.
This year, the women have again prepared natural colours, packaging them in 100-gram packets priced at Rs 50 each, with similar income expected.
The initiative has enabled the group to generate supplementary income while encouraging residents to opt for chemical-free alternatives during Holi-Dhuleti.
--IANS
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