Patna, Dec. 26: The BJP's changed tactics of allowing question hour to run for the first time in the winter session of the Assembly today left several ministers fumbling for replies.

Unprepared to answer the questions, some of them sought time from the Speaker for giving replies though it was the final day of the winter session. A few like health minister Ramdhani Singh gave half-baked answers, while others were not at all prepared for the supplementary answers.

'We thought you will stall the proceedings again,' said a minister sheepishly to the Leader of Opposition, Nand Kishore Yadav.

The government found itself in a tight position in a question related to installation of transformers on the recommendation of legislators in villages. BJP MLA Rameshwar Prasad pointed out that a 63KVA transformer costs Rs 1.25 lakh and one 100KVA transformer Rs 1.5 lakh in accordance to the state government approved rates. 'But Rs 4.5 lakh have been deducted from my MLA funds for each transformer I have recommended for villages,' the BJP MLA said, alleging a scam in purchase of transformers.

Finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav declared that the MLA's fund was public money and so the matter did not amount to a scam. But he did not explain why three-fold the price of transformers approved by the government was deducted from the funds of the MLAs.

The opposition made a futile demand for a probe as Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary asked the BJP MLA to give relevant documents to the minister first.

In reply to another question from BJP MLA Arun Kumar, Yadav declared that out of 5,611 distribution transformers in Patna, the meters of around 700 were malfunctioning. They would be replaced by March 31, 2015.

He, however, denied that 3,000 meters of transformers were missing. 'If so many meters were actually missing, how the billing could be done?' asked the minister.

Replying to a question of BJP MLA Sanjay Singh Tiger, health minister Ramdhani Singh stressed that free medicines were being distributed in Bhojpur sadar hospital, an ISO certified health hub. The BJP MLA challenged the minister's answer and said the hospital was in a bad shape and drugs had to be purchased from outside by patients.

Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore asked the minister what facilities were provided to patients in an ISO certified hospital, to which Singh had no answer. But the health minister promised to visit Bhojpur hospital soon to inspect it.

The minister also failed to give answer to another question from the same MLA as to how Rs 3 crore was spent to build a temporary structure for Koelwar Mental Hospital.

When the Leader of Opposition raised the issue of ministers not coming prepared to give answers to questions, parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar blamed the Opposition for stalling the house continuously. .

The BJP indeed stalled the post-question hour session of the House over non-implementation of Food Security Act. The Speaker rejected the adjournment motion moved by the party as its members alleged that food grain for the poor was being black-marketed and not reaching the beneficiaries.

There was a heated exchange of words between minister Shrawan Kumar and Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House. Private members' bill was taken up in the second-half of the Assembly.

The BJP MLCs stalled the proceeding in the Legislative Council also, demanding reports on Dussehra stampede and the alleged purification of a temple after the visit of chief minister Manjhi four months ago.

Both Houses were later adjourned sine die.