Bhagalpur district administration has urged the state government to get funds from the Centre for land-acquisition for NTPC’s proposed power plant at Pirpainti, stuck because of the Srijan scam.

The district administration urged the state government to arrange around Rs 200 crore to be paid as compensation to those who earlier handed over their land for the project. According to district land acquisition officer Surendra Prasad, work on the proposed plant can start only after land-acquisition. “We need some Rs 200 crore to compensate land donors,” Surendra said.

Sources said the state government can request the Centre to release the funds. The deadline for completion of the project was 2016.

The Centre’s fund was sent to the proforma disbursement account (PDA) of the Bhagalpur district administration. From there it was transferred to the account of the district land acquisition office in Bhagalpur, responsible for distributing the amount among land oustees. But because of illegal withdrawal by Srijan, the process was not completed.

Sources said it came to light during probe that in 2014, then district land acquisition officer Rajiv Ranjan Singh (now absconding and wanted by the CBI) had managed, along with nazir Rakesh Kumar Jha (now in jail), to open a new bank account of the office at Bank of Baroda’s Bhagalpur branch and transferred the compensation sum there. Subsequently, Rs 270 crore was transferred from the account to Srijan’s account through third party cheques. Then district magistrate B. Kartikeya gave his consent for transfer of the sum to the new bank account. The CBI has filed an FIR and is investigating the case.

Srijan directly transferred compensation to the account of some land donors from its account through RTGS.

Earlier, on February 22, 2014, an MoU was signed between the state government and NHPC for the proposed power plant at Pirpainti having capacity to produce 1320MW of power in two units.

Siva Electro Steel Pvt Ltd, a Patna-based construction company, was assigned by NHPC for completing infrastructure like boundary walls. But since the administration failed to provide compensation, the company winded up.

“Since Pirpainti was selected for the proposed solar plant, the state government instructed the local administration to complete land-acquisition. And hence the request for re-allotment of funds,” said an administrative source here. Sources said land acquisition is a must for the two projects.