Rajshahi Collegiate School's 190th anniv plans in question

Rajshahi Collegiate School's 190th anniversary celebration – scheduled to begin on January 25 – is already marred by allegations of lack of transparency against the organising committee.

The alumni said that the steering committee called a general meeting on January 18 night on the school premises to address the allegations, but instead they harassed the complainants by calling the police inside the school.

As the complainants raised their questions and cornered the committee bearers, the school headmaster called the police, who used batons on the alumni, they alleged.

“Usually the alumni association is in charge of organising such functions, but the association was not allowed to carry out their duty this year for reasons unknown,” Nurul Haque, vice president of the association told The Daily Star.

The association held the 150th and 180th anniversaries in 1986 and 2008. For holding the 190th anniversary, an 18-member committee was formed in February 2018, headed by the headmaster.

In March 2018, the committee invited the alumni for registration at different rates – varying from Tk 190 to Tk 1190. It also floated a tender for event management and selected a bidder for the job.

In October, the committee found a bank balance of Tk 5 lakh against the registration of 4,000 alumni, said Haque, also the joint convenor of the committee.

“The number should be higher than Tk 20 lakh,” he said, “When challenged, we learnt that a major portion of the money is being deposited to a personal account instead of the committee's account.”

The findings created a breach in the committee and 10 out of 18 members – including the joint convenor, finance secretary, and member secretary – resigned.

After they resigned, the committee proceeded with a fresh 11-member steering committee. It cancelled the event management bidder and procured low quality goods for the celebrations at higher rates, the alumni alleged. 

The committee collected a total of Tk 25 lakh from registrations of 4,200 alumni including 1,500 present students, the school's headmaster and the committee's present convenor Dr Nurjahan Begum said when contacted. 

She denied the allegations and claimed that none of the money has been misused. “We have proper accounts of the spending,” she said.

“Some people are trying to ruin the celebration,” she said, adding that the previous committees did not work as some members were inactive. She claimed that the personal account was used only for having ready cash at hand.

She said they cancelled the bidder for event management as they managed a sponsor for it.

About harassment of the alumni by the police, she said she doesn't know who called the police.

Md Amanullah, OC of Boalia Police Station, said they responded to a call from the school's headmaster, and some of their members used batons. “I apologised to the alumni later for using batons,” he said.