Ranchi, Feb. 28: The Opposition turned violent after human resource development (HRD) minister Bandhu Tirkey alleged that former Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari was hand in glove with extremists.

The issue cropped up after the minister, while responding to a question on power crisis, said extremists had held up the Ranchi-Latehar-Daltonganj transmission line. “The government had floated the tenders thrice, but only one bidder came forward every time. We are in the process to float the tender again,” he said.

Namdhari wanted to know whether a racket to manage the tender was active in the state and also whether the government was involved in escalating the price of the project.

Tirkey responded by saying that it was Namdhari who might be hand in glove with Naxalites. This led to an uproar and the minister had to tender an apology.

Earlier, BJP members Raghubar Das, C.P. Singh and P.N. Singh raised the issue of chief secretary P.P. Sharma’s alleged irregularities with a demand to take action against him. Water resources minister Kamlesh Singh also faced the Opposition’s wrath.

On the issue of Daltonganj District Superintendent of Education Satyanarayan Lakra, chief minister Madhu Koda said, Lakra would be shifted to the headquarters and a probe would be launched.

Technically, the Congress may be “duty bound” to bail the Koda government out on every front during the ongoing budget session of the Assembly, but practically it is not missing any opportunity to belittle it.

While participating in the debate on the Governor’s address to the House, state unit Congress chief Pradip Kumar Balmuchu said the Koda government had miserably failed to deliver. His party submitted a 19-point charter to the Koda government a couple of months ago, but that too was “ignored”.

“The finance bill passed in the last Assembly session is yet to be approved by the Governor. The ministers are also not coming to the House,” said Balmuchu amid interruptions by the Opposition, who questioned his “dual character”.

A Congress legislator confided that during lunch hour Balmuchu and CLP leader Manoj Yadav were seen giving out “recommendation” letters to the CM’s private secretary. So far, almost a dozen letters have been given.

The Congress bitterly criticised Opposition leader Arjun Munda’s parallel speech, when the Governor was addressing the House yesterday.