Chinsurah, Aug. 5: A block development officer (BDO) in Hooghly has run up an annual car fuel bill of Rs 1.38 lakh, prompting an investigation.

What has added fuel to the fire is that Sajia Sagufta, the BDO of Chanditala, has blocked a bill for Rs 1,386 spent on buying fuel for the generator of the local panchayat samiti, leading to a protest by its Trinamul Congress workers.

The workers of the Trinamul-run Chanditala-II panchayat samiti have been agitating in front of the BDO’s office and have not allowed her to enter office for the past week.

The district administration has described Sagufta’s car fuel bill as “abnormal” and has launched a probe.

Saibal Chakraborty, the subdivisional officer (SDO) of Serampore who is carrying out the probe, said: “A bill of Rs 1.38 lakh is abnormal. We have information that the BDO has used the car for personal purposes.” District officials said a BDO’s car fuel bill generally ranges between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000 a year.

Sagufta, however, claimed she had not used the car alone. “Apart from me, the car was also used by Chanditala panchayat samiti functionaries. That is why the bill is so high,” she said.

The Trinamul functionaries of the samiti denied the charge. “We have never used the car. The logbook has all the records of car requisition. A thorough check of the logbook will reveal that only the BDO had used the car,” said Sanat Sanki, the chief of Chanditala-II panchayat samiti.

Sanki also criticised Sagufta for sitting on the generator fuel bill. “Because of prolonged power cuts, we hired the generator in May to carry out census work at our office. We had taken permission from the subdivisional officer. Although we have all the necessary receipts for the diesel purchased, the BDO is not signing the bill,” Sanki said.

However, Sagufta said the diesel was not purchased from the petrol pump from where government cars buy their fuel. SDO Chakraborty said there was no hard-and-fast rule that diesel for government cars had to be purchased from a particular petrol pump.

Sanki said the Trinamul workers “won’t let the BDO enter her office until she agrees to sign the bill”. Sagufta has refused to attend office with police escort.

Sagufta and Sanki today attended a meeting organised by the additional district magistrate (general) of Hooghly, R. Alice Vaz. However, the two-hour meeting failed to arrive at a solution.