Speaker adjourns House as Oppn criticises Koda over bad road

Ranchi, Dec 15 (UNI) The BJP-led Opposition mounted pressure on the ruling UPA government over construction of a bad road forcing Chief Minister Madhu Koda to reply time and again even as dissatisfied Opposition kept shouting slogans promoting the Speaker to adjourn the House for a while in the Jharkhand Assembly today.

Speaker Alamgir Alam referred the short notice question regarding Hatgamharia-Baiburu national highway in West Singbhum district to a call attention committee though the NDA pressed hard for constitution of an all party assembly committee to inquire into the matter.

Mr Saryu Rai (BJP) raised the question and the Chief Minister intervening the heated debate replied that intially Rs 10 crore was sanctioned for construction of the road but later on it was revised to Rs 13 crore during former Chief Minster Arjun Munda's regime.

Mr Munda had ordered suspension of the engineer involved in the project when the construction of the road was not found satisfactory, Mr Koda said adding the engineer under cloud was,however, reinstated within two weeks.

Agitated over the Chief Minister's statement, Mr Munda, now the Leader of the Opposition, said the initial proposed expenditure stood at Rs 13 crore but now the present government revised the estimate to a whopping Rs 164 crore for the same road.

The Chief Minister replied that the NH concerned was being constructed as per norms of the Highway Authority of India.

Mr Koda said a consultant had been appointed to monitor the constrution of the road.

However, the Opposition refused to relent and shouted slogans against the government and went to the floor of the House and squatted on the floor.

Finally, Mr Alam adjourned the House for ten minutes.

UNI