Decades after dam on Hemavathi, compensation scam emerges

Probe reveals that many beneficiaries used the project to regularise encroachment on government land in Sakleshpur

Much water has flown in river Hemavathi since a dam was built at Gorur near Hassan in 1979. Now, the grant of alternative land for farmers who lost their land for the project, has turned into a scam involving more than 10,000 acres. The value of land granted violating the rules would run into several hundred crores of rupees. A police investigation into grant of land between January 1, 2015, and November 30, 2018, has unearthed over 2,500 cases of fictitious records. Considering that each beneficiary is entitled to four acres, the total quantum of land would be more than 10,000 acres.