JORHAT: The price of petrol and diesel in Majuli river island, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal's assembly constituency, is the highest among all districts of the state. Fuel depots owners from the area said the reason for this is the additional transportation cost oil companies have imposed from this year to ferry petrol and diesel across the Brahmaputra."Earlier, the price of petrol and diesel in Majuli was fixed at the same rate as in Jorhat . But from this year, the price has been increased by the oil companies in Majuli with the imposition of an additional transportation cost," said Basaram Baruah, proprietor of Majuli service centre, which has been dealing in fuel for the past 12 years in Majuli.He added, "We wanted the oil companies and the administration not to impose the additional charge, but they refused and imposed additional charges of minimum Rs 1.25 for petrol and Rs 1.16 from diesel over and above the prevailing prices in Jorhat from this year."On Thursday, the prices of petrol and diesel in Majuli were fixed at Rs 84.93 and Rs 77.83 per litre respectively. In Jorhat, the price of petrol was Rs 83.76 and diesel was Rs 76.75 per litre. In Guwahati, the price of petrol is Rs 83.49 and diesel is Rs 76.41 per litre as of Thursday.An official from the Majuli district administration said, "The prices of petrol and diesel are fixed by the oil companies. The local administration has nothing to do with it unless it receives any clear instructions from the government."Meanwhile, locals from the river island are concerned about the price rise. They questioned why the prices in Majuli have been increased now when oil companies used to supply fuel to Majuli at the same rate as Jorhat for so many years. "We believe this is a conspiracy by the oil companies to earn additional money by imposing excess cost on fuel. This is also a failure of the district administration in Majuli, because of which thousands of people in the island are suffering," said Jagat Hazarika a social worker from Majuli.In Majuli, two fuel service centres operating currently, one at Kamalabari and another at Garmur. Another fuel centre is under construction at Phulani area and is expected to commence service in two-thre months.A fuel centre employee working in Majuli said, "We take oil-laden tankers to Neematighat, where we have to put the oil into barrels to be ferried across Brahmaputra. After about a two-hour ferry journey, we have to load the oil drums onto trucks from ferries at Kamalabari and later offload the oil into our underground storage tanks from the barrels."

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