Dhanbad, Feb. 8: Over 1,000 students of government and public schools from the state took part at a painting competition at St Xavier’s School, Dhanbad, today.

Based on their age, the participants were divided into four groups — A, B, C and D. Students of group A were to only colour a given picture, while group B participants had to paint a scenery. Students of group C were asked to draw either a ship or a boat and the senior students of category D were given topics such as disaster and sports.

The first prize in this group went to Nidhi Nayan of Indian School, Jharia, who upheld the agonies of people suffering from drought. In category C, the first prize went to Mausam Kumar of Rajkamal Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Dhansar. Sudipta Paul of the same school stood first in group B. She had painted a village.

In group A, the first prize was awarded to Archi Ranjan of Jingle Bells School. The judges were art teacher of Delhi Public School, Dhanbad, Anand Kumar Mishra, Shyamal Sen of SSLNT Women’s College and artist Alok Nath Dutta.