Pirpainty (Bhagalpur), July 24: More than 300 farmers, whose land had been acquired for a proposed power plant, on Sunday chased away workers building a boundary wall for the plant, and brought work to a standstill.

The farmers were protesting against what they called large-scale irregularities in payment of compensation to many of them by the local administration.

The farmers under the banner of Kishan Chetna Evam Utthan Samity drove back workers near Tarwa village at the mango orchard of Ramsaroop Singh, a farmer who had handed over his land for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) project.

The NTPC had earlier asked NHPC Limited (erstwhile National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) to set up the Rs 10,000 crore power project. The NHPC assigned Silva Electro Stills Pvt. Ltd, a Patna-based private company, to erect boundary walls on the nearly 1308 acre of land for the project.

Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, a manager with Silva Electro, said they had started the boundary wall work in December 2013 but within a month the villagers stopped it.

"We have to construct a nearly 18km boundary wall in the radius of the power project and we have completed nearly 60 per cent of the work. Work has been stopped since December 31, 2014 after villagers started opposing the construction work; but we had started work last month which stopped today again," he said.

The Kishan Chetna Evam Utthan Samity members took out a procession from Hira Guest house in the morning and went to the site before visiting the Pirpainty block office. They raised slogans against the government and the local administration.

Sharwan Singh, president of the samity, and BJP's Pirpainty block president Munna Singh alleged that heavy irregularities in paying compensation to the farmers whose lands were acquired earlier have come to the fore.

"Officials concerned did not organise any camp or serve notice to the farmers, the basic requirements in land acquisition but completed the process on paper. The farmers have been paid over 80 per cent of the compensation but the payments have not been done in a proper way and many irregularities and violation of norms have been reported. It is a scam," alleged Mitthu, the media in-charge of Kishan Chetna Evam Utthan Samity.

Showing the list of 243 land donors of Harinkol panchayat, 11 from Raypura panchayat, 14 from Sundarpur panchayat, six from Mundwa panchayat, 19 from Srimathpur panchayat, seven from Harinkol 2 panchayat, Mitthu alleged that not all people received proper payments as per norms.

"According to norms of the Land Reform Act, 2013, an additional bonus of 30 per cent should be given to the land owners who donated their lands but very few received it," Mitthu addded.