Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s much-awaited paddy harvesting was delayed by more than two hours and he launched the harvest after sunset on Friday.
The chief minister had shown interest in harvesting the paddy, which he had transplanted on August 11 at Sitapura village in the taluk. All arrangements were made for the programme with District In-charge Minister C S Puttaraju supervising them since Thursday.
The programme was fixed at 4 pm. But when the chief minister got into the field, it was over 6 pm. Kumaraswamy was in Kodagu from where he rushed to Pandavapura. Kumaraswamy did not harvest paddy, but performed puja to the paddy field and launched the programme. Later, the farmers began harvesting, breaking the tradition of the farming community. Generally, harvesting is not taken up after sun set. Though farmers tried to handover the sickle, the chief minister refused.
As hundreds of farmers rushed into the field, there was confusion at the venue for a while. Later, he performed puja to the heaps of paddy.
Shivannagowda of Aralkuppe said that it is not good to harvest paddy after sunset. Paddy is harvested only during the day and it is the custom, he said.
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