Ruling party men lock RU gates for jobs
Ruling Awami League men padlocked the main gates of Rajshahi University for an hour yesterday, around one and a half months after they had foiled four employee recruitment tests on the campus.
The AL men have been pressurising the university authorities to provide jobs to the party men since April, 2015.
After locking the two main gates around 8:00am yesterday, some 50 leaders and activists of Motihar Thana AL took position in front of them and started chanting slogans, said RU officials and witnesses.
Armed policemen, present at the place, did nothing, they added.
As the gates were locked, the university buses and other vehicles could not enter the campus. So, the teachers and students had to walk in through the pocket gates.
On information, RU Proctor Prof Mujibul Haque Azad rushed to the scene.
The AL men left the place after talking to him. Later, the protesters met the vice chancellor at his office.
Again around 11:00am, a procession led by Motihar unit AL General Secretary M Alauddin entered the campus and paraded around it. Later, the AL men staged a sit-in in front of one of the main gates.
“We want jobs,” Alauddin told the newspaper in the afternoon.
He also alleged that the university authorities were providing jobs only to the relatives of the employees and the BNP-Jamaat men.
The university authorities rejected the allegation on several occasions before.
On December 21 last year, local AL leaders foiled a viva voce for recruiting class-IV employees at Rajshahi University School on the campus.
Two days later, they again stopped three recruitment tests, forcing job seekers out of the examination halls. The ruling party men also beat some of the job seekers and tore up their documents and dresses, said witnesses.
Besides, Rajshahi city AL General Secretary Dablu Sarkar allegedly threatened RU Vice Chancellor Prof Mizan Uddin at the latter's office on April 20, 2015 while demanding job for ruling party men.
On November 28, 2011, RU BCL men also foiled the Accounting and Information Management department final examination as one of them had not been allowed to attend it because of poor attendance.
Even after all these incidents, neither the university authorities nor the police have filed any case against the ruling party men.
Contacted, Proctor Azad said, “What action can we take? Local people were demanding jobs and we told them to talk to the university authorities.”
However, insiders said the university authorities were not taking any legal action as they know that the protesters have the “blessings of top ruling AL leaders in Rajshahi city”.
RU VC Prof Mizan said, ”Whenever an incident happens, we inform the police about it. It's them who are supposed to act to maintain law and order on the campus”.
Asked, he said, “Filing any case was a matter of discussion”.
Police said they could act after getting complaints from the university.
Amir Jafar, deputy commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said, “We don't want to apply force when things can be settled through discussions”.
RU Pro VC Prof Sarwar Jahan Sajal said the university authorities wanted to maintain a congenial academic atmosphere on the campus.
“Some locals are demanding jobs but we can't give them that as we have to follow certain rules,” he said.
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