The Chittagong University students staged a demonstration on Sunday afternoon by locking down the administrative building, pressing for on-campus residential facilities for each and every student.
At about 2:30pm, students from different academic years padlocked all entrances of the building, confining the vice-chancellor, pro-vice-chancellor, registrar and other staff inside.
As of 8:45pm when this report was filed, the building remained locked, leaving staff buses unable to depart the campus.
Earlier, at about 1:30pm, the students began a protest rally in front of the administrative building and later locked its gates, pressing for a five-point demand, including housing allowances for those who could not be provided with proper accommodation at the student halls.聽
鈥極ur university is far from the city. Many students depend on the shuttle train to attend classes, but frequent disruptions often keep us from reaching campus,鈥� said Tasnina Mithila, a student of the university.
Saying that they had been demanding 100 per cent accommodation for long, Mithila stated that the administration must give housing allowances for those students whom they could not provide accommodation facilities.
Md Mahfuz, a sports science student, said, 鈥榃e have a vast campus, but insufficient dormitories. The administration could easily bring government budget to build multi-storeyed halls, but they lack the will.鈥�
Geography student Kazi Asmani Binte Tajbi said, 鈥業 applied multiple times but failed to get any seat. There is widespread corruption.鈥�
She alleged that some students occupied a whole room each, while many others obtained accommodation exerting political influence.
Registrar Professor Md Saiful Islam denied the allegations that they ignored the students鈥� demand.
鈥楾he students submitted demands earlier, but it鈥檚 not true that we ignored them. Without giving us any ultimatum, they locked down the building,鈥� said the registrar while he was still confined in the building.
The five-point charter of demands raised by the students are: 100 per cent residential accommodation through immediate plans for new multi-storeyed halls; provision of housing allowances to those students who could not be provided with proper accommodation; eviction of illegal hall occupants; refund of Tk 100 hall application fees repeatedly taken from the students who never received seats; and abolition of the 鈥榙oubling鈥� system in women鈥檚 halls, replacing it with bunk-bed arrangement.
