Jorhat, March 24: Bullocks in Majuli are about to carry the heaviest burden of their “weight-lifting” careers — the whole load of democracy.

The Majuli sub-divisional administration is desperately looking for bullock carts to carry poll material, including EVMs, from the riverbank to the interior chaporis (sandbars), since the only other mode of communication available, the bicycle, would not serve the purpose of carrying such huge bulks to the booths.

As the sandbars, spread across Majuli, Asia’s largest freshwater island, have no roads, for a long time people were forced to travel on bullock-carts to reach the bank.

However, with time, the bullock-cart lost its monopoly and people began using bicycles to reach the ghats, carrying bags of agricultural produce.

Circle officer of Majuli sub-divisional, Dulal Debnath, said the administration was finding it difficult to arrange for bullock-driven or horse-driven carts for the 10 polling stations located in areas far away from the main island.

After an extensive search, only five bullock carts could be found, said Debnath.

He said sector officers deputed for polls were personally supervising the hunt for bullock-carts or horse-driven carts for the April 4 polling.

Since bicycles were a faster and cheaper means to travel and carry goods, they had found favour over the traditional carts in Majuli.

However, since the polling personnel have to carry lot of official and personal luggage, including EVMs and other poll-related materials, motorcycles and cycles would not suffice.

Besides, since the election officials also need to travel in groups, cycles were not an option.

Debnath said if they failed to arrange for enough bullock carts within the next few days, then carts would have to be ferried from the mainland to the chaporis on boats.

As part of the election plan, 60 per cent of the total requirement of vehicles needed for poll duty in Majuli will have to be hired from the Jorhat mainland as there was a shortage of vehicles on the sandbars.

Altogether 150 light motor vehicles and about 10 heavy vehicles will be needed for the polls, to be held at 154 polling stations.

He said five machine boats, including three large ones, will be required for the elections to Majuli constituency, which has 1,07,797 voters in all, 55,554 of them men.