Uproarious scenes were witnessed in the House when Opposition leader Sushil Kumar Modi charged the state government with trying to hush up the `barbaric and heinous' attack and called for immediate resignation of the Chief Minister.

He claimed that more than 40 tribals, mostly women and children, were butchered and thrown into blazing huts in the village. Minister for Revenue and Land Reforms Ravindra Charan Yadav disputed the claim of Modi and said Opposition leader should resign for making irresponsible statements by giving inflated figures.

Yadav accused the BJP of `communalising' the incidents and said only seven persons fell prey to the violence.

BJPmembers came out in strong defence of Modi and urged Speaker Deo Narayan Yadav to restrain the minister. The Opposition leader, however, continued his attack on state government for its alleged failure in checking recurrence of such incidents and taking steps to settle cases of land dispute that led to outbreak of the violence.

He urged the chair to get the incidents probed either by a house committee or CBI. Modi charged that the state administration had thoroughly collapsed and even policemen are feeling insecure.

He said four senior police officers including deputy superintendent of police (saharsa) had been killed by criminals during the past one month.

He demanded an ex-gratia payment of Rs five lakh to bereaved dependents of each of the victims. Participating in the special debate on the Purnea violence, JMM-S leader in the House Stephen Marandi deplored the killing of tribals and pressed for a CBI inquiry into it.

He alleged that law and order situation in the state had ``touched its lowestlevel and state machinery required thorough overhauling.'`

Samata Party MLA Lovely Anand also supported the demand for CBI inquiry and criticised the state government for not taking proper steps to contain the increase in criminal incidents.

Left party members including Ramdeo Verma (CPM), and Ambika Prasad (CPI) accused the BJP of giving a communal colour to the occurences and claimed peace had totally returned to the affected villages.