The north block of Fazlul Haque Hall has been sealed off after the authorities spotted cracks. Last September, students in 20 rooms were forced to move out because the hall authorities said it was too risky for them to stay.

Students in adjoining rooms say they are not safe either, as cracks have opened in their walls, too. A fortnight ago, a lump of plaster weighing about five kilograms fell in one of the rooms. Students have identified 78 rooms as dangerous.

Moniruzzaman Razin, a student, said many students were so worried about the worsening condition of the hall that they could not sleep properly. Some were so frightened that they slept in their friends' rooms.

Professor AM Sarwar Uddin Chowdhury, a house tutor, said concrete plaster of his residence attached to the hall building had also fallen.

There has been falling masonry at Salimullah, Shahidullah, Jagannath, Surya Sen and Haji Mohammad Muhsin halls and at two other university buildings.

Mould and weeds grow on many walls, as water seeps through cracks, and flaking plaster is common. Falling roof plaster has been a problem for years but no repairs have been undertaken because the university authorities say they do not have adequate funds for maintenance.

The students said a Fazlul Haque Hall extension was demolished a few years ago because it was feared that it could collapse anytime and although reconstruction work had been underway for years, it was still incomplete.

"We have identified the risky rooms of the Fazlul Haque Hall and blocked off the rooms to avoid accidents," Dhaka University's Chief Engineer Mohammad Ameer Hossain told The Daily Star.

He said a consultation team from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) had visited the hall and submitted a planning report. But, according to Hossain, its failure to submit a final report was holding up work.

But Dr AJ Khan of BUET's civil engineering department and a member of the two-member consultancy team said, "We have submitted our final report to the DU authorities and recommended that they demolish and reconstruct the decayed portion."

Meanwhile, engineering office sources say that every year they submit proposals for remedial work on the worst buildings, but they never get the go-ahead because the university does not have enough funds and the authorities are bogged down in bureaucracy.