On an allegation of such black marketeering, the deputy commissioner of Kurigram yesterday slapped a show-cause notice on the owner of a local filling station.

Sources said the owner of Shaikat Filling Station sold 9,000 litres of diesel from his allotment to Abdul Gafur, a businessman of the district's border area, on January 28.

Officials of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) acknowledged receiving allegations of the black marketeering, but said nobody had come up with specific evidence so far.

However, the northern farmers have started to get diesel and kerosene, though at limited quantities. But an acute crisis of petrol and octane is still haunting both transport owners and commuters.

BPC officials said yesterday the diesel supply was 900 metric ton against a demand for 2,200 metric ton. The total reserve of diesel in the northern region yesterday stood at 14,000 litre.

Our Rajshahi correspondent Anwar Ali reports: People did not get petrol at most of the filling stations in the city yesterday, while supply of diesel started to rise, bringing some relief for the farmers who require a huge quantity of diesel to run irrigation pumps during the current peak Boro season.

Reports from Dinajpur, Rangpur and other northern districts also indicate an acute shortage of petrol and octane, with diesel supply picking up after the opening of the alternate fuel depot at Kazirhat, 25km downstream of Baghabari. The depot at Baghabari went out of operation as a shrinking river channel started to keep fuel vessels stranded.

Now only 50 lorries of diesel are supplied from the newly installed Kazirhat floating oil depot a day, compared to some 350 lorries of oil that used to be supplied on average from Baghabari depot, reports our Bogra correspondent Hasibur Rahman.

However, the authorities yesterday expressed the hope that with rail wagons carrying more fuel supplies from Chittagong and Khulna to the northern districts, the current crisis would be subdued to a large extent soon.