Naugachia: The backlash of the multi-crore Srijan scam surfaced in the Kosi hinterland for the first time on Wednesday in Bhagalpur as thousands of farmers blocked the Naugachia-Madhepura road in protest against delay in land compensation.

The villagers started a hunger strike demanding immediate compensation. The land acquisition officer, Bhagalpur, Jitendrar Jha, said the process to pay compensation to the villagers was in the pipeline. More than 2,000 villagers from three panchayats - Kadwa diara, Khairpur Kadwa and Dholbazza - located in the Kosi hinterland on the bordering part of Bhagalpur squatted on the Naugachia-Madhepura main road.

More than a dozen farmers also started a fast-unto-death on the spot.

The farmers said they earlier handed over their lands for the approach road of Baba Bisu Raut bridge across the Kosi on the Naugachia-Madhepura road, an important road to connect Bhagalpur and eastern parts of the district in the state with the Kosi region in short time. Women and children blocked Naugachia-Madhepura road from early morning at Milan Chak near Kadwa High School, some 18km north of the district headquarters.

"We need to go to Supaul for urgent family work. We took the shortest route, the Naugachia-Madhepura main road, but we are now stuck in the roadblock," said Md Muzaffar, a resident of Banka who was travelling with his wife and three children.

Mukesh Kumar, sub-divisional officer (SDO), Naugachia, said the Srijan scam was responsible for the problem.

"Over 61 villagers had handed over their lands for the approach road of Baba Bisu Raut bridge across the Kosi and the government subsequently allotted compensation for the land oustees. But after the Srijan scam surfaced, it came to light that the amount for the land oustees were illegally taken out from the accounts of the land acquisition department by the persons involved in the scam," he said.

He added that as all the accounts and cash books of the department were seized by the CBI, the payments to the land oustees were delayed.