Calcutta, Jan. 1: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today criticised the Centre for increasing the price of petrol and diesel twice in the past two weeks.

“This is very unfair and we must oppose it,” Bhattacharjee said at Writers’ Buildings.

While declaring the magical 8.4 Gross Domestic Product figure, the Centre had quietly announced another fuel price hike.

The price of petrol and diesel was raised by about Re 1 a litre.

In Calcutta, petrol will cost Rs 36.61 a litre, a rise of Rs 1.04. Diesel will cost Rs 23.99 a litre, an increase of Rs 1.05.

Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty said he would write to petroleum minister Ram Naik soon. “I have received a number of calls from different transport operators during the day. All of them told me they would find it difficult to run their vehicles following the hike in the price of diesel.”

Asked if the government would consider raising the fares of private buses, mini-buses and taxis, he said he would take up the matter with transport operators before taking any decision.

Public transport operators, however, said they were not interested in increasing fares. “We want withdrawal of various additional taxes imposed recently by the state government,” said Bimal Guha, general secretary of the Bengal Taxi Association.

Guha said the association would write to the state government on Monday, urging it to withdraw the additional taxes. “Increasing fares almost regularly will not solve our problem. On the contrary, it will go against the transport operators, as commuters will have to pay additional charges,” he added.

The Calcutta Taxi Association submitted a memorandum to the transport minister demanding a revision of taxi fares. Subhash Kaushik, secretary of the association, said the government should stop issuing fresh taxi permits.

The secretary of the Joint Council of Bus Syndicate, Sadhan Das, said the syndicate would hold a meeting tomorrow to take stock of the situation.