Probe committee fails to submit report in two years and a half
Abdur Rahman Hall, one of the 10 dormitories of Jagannath University that have been kept occupied illegally, is in a dilapidated condition in the old part of Dhaka. The photo was taken on Friday. — Indrajit Ghosh
The Jagannath University authority has yet to make any headway in reclaiming 10 of the 12 dormitories from illegal occupants while students are forced to live at rented places on their own taking financial burden on them.
A high-powered probe committee formed for reclaiming the dormitories from ‘illegal’ occupants and ensuring congenial educational atmosphere at Jagannath University failed to submit report in about two years and a half, although it was given a 30-workingday timeframe.
Since the formation of the committee on March 3, 2014, the university could recover only a part of Nazrul Islam dormitory and sent a couple of letters to the land ministry and the Dhaka deputy commissioner to get three of the dormitories vacated from illegal occupants, said a top university official.
Students deprived of residential facilities have been rallying for constructing residential halls of the university on the land of just moved-out Dhaka Central Jail in the Old Dhaka and reclaiming halls since August 1.
Students living at messes, shared rooms and apartments, said that besides increasing house rent and travelling cost, they were now facing new problem as many of their house owners asked them to leave the premises after the recent extremist attacks.
Probe committee chief, Kazi Firoz Rashid, also the local lawmaker, said that they had forwarded some recommendations to the university authority. ‘I have asked the committee member-secretary to prepare the report,’ he added.
Probe committee member-secretary Wahiduzzaman, also the university registrar, however, declined
to comment and asked New Age correspondent to contact Kazi Fiorz Rashid for reason of the failure to submit the report.
Month-long protests launched by about 20,000 students of the university forced the government to form the committee on March 3, 2014 asking it to submit the report in 30 working days.
In 1970s, there were at least 12 dormitories to accommodate the resident students of the then Jagannath College.
The students were evicted from the hostels following clashes between students and hooligans during the movement against the autocratic regime of military ruler HM Ershad in February 1985. The hooligans set the dormitories on fire.
Powerful people began to grab the hostels after the eviction of the students.
In 2005, Jagannath College was transformed into the Jagannath University and since then students raised their voice for residential facilities. Student demonstrations in 2012 forced the authorities to reclaim Habibur Rahman Hostel and Bani Bhaban.
Habibur Rahman Hostel was an establishment roofed with corrugated iron sheets and the university demolished it for constructing a new building. The construction is, however, yet to start while some university employees are now residing at Bani Bhaban.
Since the formation of the probe committee, the university could reclaim only a part of Nazrul Islam dormitory and sent a couple of letters to the land ministry and the
Dhaka deputy commissioner to reclaim four of the dormitories from illegal occupants.
The University authorities, however, took no initiative to recover the rest five dormitories – Tibbet Hostel, Saidur Rahman Hostel, Rouf Majumder Hostel, Shahid Anwar Shafik Hostel and Shahabuddin Hostel – from illegal occupants, according to top university officials.
Shahid Anwar Shafik Hostel at Armanitola has been turned into a warehouse-cum-commercial building, Saidur Rahman Hostel into a rickshaw garage and Abdur Rouf Majumder Hostel into a warehouse.
A local political leader has grabbed Shahabuddin Hostel, said university officials.
A staff quarter, called Karmachari Abash, once used as student hostel, has been turned into Crown Market.
Jagannath University authorities said that they requested Dhaka South City Corporation to hand over to it Bazlur Rahman
Hostel where the city corporation had established a school.
The university authorities sent several letters to the land ministry to get Abdur Rahman Hostel, occupied by police families, vacated.
The police families said that they leased the hostel land from the government.
The university authorities said that they also wrote to the Dhaka deputy commissioner to cancel the lease of Shaheed Ajmal Hossain Hostel.
Influential quarters, a political leader, already built a market on Tibbet Hostelof the university at Kumartuli and named it Gulshan City.
‘Now, the same people are constructing another market on the rest of the land,’ said a university official.
Jagannath University unit Samajtantik Chhatra Front president Mehrab Azad alleged that as the people from ruling party had grabbed the halls, authorities were not serious to reclaim them.
University vice-chancellor Mijanur Rahman said that the authorities were trying their best to reclaim the dormitories having limited or least legal problems. The reclamation of the other dormitories having more legal complications would take time, he said.
Source: New Age
