Thousands of farmers in central Karnataka's drought-prone pockets could get assured irrigation water if two stalled lift schemes win swift cabinet approval — and on Thursday, 5 November 2026, a high-level delegation made exactly that case to Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar in Bengaluru.

The delegation, led by Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, carried petitions on behalf of farmers from Harihar taluk in Davanagere district, pressing the Chief Minister for immediate administrative approval and fund release for two separate lift irrigation proposals tapping the Tungabhadra river.

The Devarabeḷakere Lift Scheme: ₹75 crore to revive a tank

The first proposal targets Devarabeḷakere in Harihar taluk — a tank that has historically gone dry during lean seasons. Under the scheme, water would be lifted directly from the Tungabhadra to refill the lake, extending irrigated area to thousands of farm plots in the surrounding belt. The estimated project cost stands at approximately ₹75 crore.

Farmers in this corridor depend heavily on tank-fed cultivation for their kharif and rabi cycles. Without a reliable source of top-up water, the tank's command area shrinks every year, pushing smallholders toward rain-fed uncertainty.

Bhairanapadā Scheme: 1,632 hectares and six lakes on the line

The second, more ambitious proposal is the Bhairanapadā Lift Irrigation Scheme, designed to serve the Bhadra ayacut-affected area — farmland that has fallen short of the irrigation coverage originally promised under the broader Bhadra reservoir network. At an estimated ₹136 crore, this scheme would pump Tungabhadra water to irrigate 1,632 hectares of agricultural land and simultaneously fill 6 major tanks in the region.

The scale of that tank-filling component matters: in central Karnataka's undulating terrain, cascading tank systems amplify water availability far beyond the primary command area, benefiting communities well downstream of each filled reservoir.

What the delegation asked for — and who would build it

The farmers' request was three-fold: immediate administrative sanction for both schemes, prompt release of allocated funds, and a formal government directive assigning construction to the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL) — the state's dedicated irrigation corporation. Routing the work through KNNL is standard practice for lift schemes of this scale in Karnataka and is seen as the fastest path from approval to ground-breaking.

Karnataka governments have consistently used Tungabhadra and Bhadra basin lifts to push irrigation into rainfed pockets of the central districts — a pattern that underscores why both schemes fit squarely within the state's established water-management playbook. The critical next step is a cabinet-level decision translating the CM's reception of the petition into an official sanction order and budget line.

With ₹211 crore in combined outlay and the livelihoods of thousands of Davanagere farmers hanging on a government go-ahead, the pressure on the cabinet to act — and act quickly — has never been louder.