BM College hostel students hand principal memorandum with four demands, including a gate to keep outsiders out
Photo: Collected
Students of the Ashwini Kumar Hostel at Barishal’s Government Brajamohan College (BM College) staged a protest march and submitted a memorandum with a four-point charter of demands, including swift completion of the hostel road construction and a halt to outsiders entering for security reasons. More than 50 hostel residents marched to the college principal around 12 noon on Sunday (1 November) and handed over the memorandum.
Discontent had recently grown among general students after construction of the hostel road was stopped, and the programme was held in response.
In the memorandum, the students wrote that several steps were urgently needed to ensure the hostel’s security, ease of movement and the physical and mental development of students. Their four demands are: finishing the road work quickly to ease access to the hostel and remove waterlogging, building a gate at the hostel to keep outsiders out, arranging an annual study tour and providing a playground for sports.
Akbar Mubin, a resident of Block A of the Ashwini Kumar Hostel, is a final-year master’s student in the Bangla department. He said more than 50 students had marched to the principal and demanded effective measures, including building a gate, to stop outsiders from entering. He alleged that outsiders had already caused disorder at the hostel three to four times.
According to Akbar Mubin, the latest incident came on the night of 29 October, when outsiders caused disorder during a meeting at the hostel, vandalising CCTV cameras and stirring up tension. The students also asked why the road work had been halted and demanded that it be finished quickly. He said tense situations arose at the hostel on 26 and 29 October over the halting of the road work.
BM College’s acting principal, Professor Kazi Jaber Ahmed, said students of the Ashwini Kumar Hostel came on Sunday, submitted the memorandum and told him about various problems. Necessary steps will be taken to maintain discipline on campus after discussions with the teachers, he said.
On the stalled road work, the principal said engineers of the Education Engineering Department were being urged to act. Steps will also be taken to stop outsiders from entering, and vehicles have already been barred from entering the campus, he said.
On the evening of 26 October, college Chhatra Dal president Jubayer Hossain and general secretary Walid Bin Salauddin stopped the construction of the Ashwini Kumar Hostel road, alleging substandard work. General students and Chhatra Dal leaders then faced off twice over the matter, and tension spread. On 29 October, a report on the issue was published under the headline ‘Late-night tension at BM College hostel, Chhatra Dal and students face off’.
Sources
Original report: Ajker Patrika
