Chinakurali:  Thonnur Lake Festival was launched by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at Thonnur Lake in Pandavapura taluk yesterday. The CM performed Ganga Puja and offered ‘Bagina’ to the lake. A team of priests from Varanasi had come to perform religious rituals.

Kumaraswamy was accorded a grand reception on arrival at Kere Thonnur village and was taken on a tractor decorated with flowers through the streets of the village.

For the first time the festival is being organised on a huge floating platform, specially made by a Mumbai firm, right in the middle of the lake. The three-day festival would feature various cultural programmes. The platform can seat about 500 people. Staging programmes on the floating platform is a novel exercise and has drawn curious people.