Admission trade nets Tk 1cr in 3 colleges

Leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League have made a huge sum of money from students seeking admission to first-year honours courses at different city colleges under National University.
They have grabbed over Tk 1 crore through this illegal admission trade at just three colleges in the capital--Dhaka College, Eden Women's University College and Kobi Nazrul College--promising them to ensure their desired subjects, said BCL insiders at these institutions.
Top two central leaders of the student organisation of the ruling Awami League are also involved in this admission trade, sources inside the BCL told The Daily Star.
In some cases, teachers of colleges concerned are also involved in this illegal practice under pressure from BCL leaders while a few teachers having connections with the BCL leaders get involved on their own.
The BCL leaders have recently raised their demand after the National University authorities decided to go online for the admission process for Dhaka College and Suhrawardy College, the sources said.
One leader of Kobi Nazrul College unit of BCL told The Daily Star that one student secured 524th position on the merit list in commerce group but he was given history, a humanities group subject, instead of any subject of commerce group although there were some seats left in that group.
The student finally had to enrol for management paying top BCL leaders Tk 25,000.
The BCL leader said some 200 such cases have occurred in Kobi Nazrul College this year.
Sources said President Mahiuddin Sarkar and General Secretary Munna of BCL unit in that college control the admission trade.
Officials of the institution said the college has in total 1,520 seats for first-year honours courses, of which 600 are in humanities group, 520 in commerce and 400 in science group.
Usually, some seats are reserved for BCL leaders under what they call "political" quota. Teachers involved in the admission trade tell students that there are no seats left in some specific subject and later enrol students nominated by BCL leaders, the sources told The Daily Star.
At least 30 people were injured in a clash between BCL units of Jagannath University and Kobi Nazrul College over admission trade on January 28.
BCL sources said the clash ensued when a few BCL men of Kobi Nazrul College beat up Joy and Shafayet, members of Jagannath University unit of the party, who came to lobby for a student's admission.
The admission trade in Eden Women's University College is controlled by BCL unit President Jasmine Shamima Nijhum and General Secretary Farzana Yasmin Tania, insiders said.
BCL activists contact admission seekers and take them to the top leaders to fix the amount for their admission.
They then collect the photocopy of the admit cards of admission seekers, two copies of passport size photographs, photocopies of their SSC and HSC transcripts and give those to an influential teacher of the college. The teacher then nominates students for their desired subjects, sources said.
A student seeking admission to the college said her name was on the merit list in commerce group but she could not get a subject in that group. The teachers told her that there were no seats left in that group and nominated her for political science.
The college has 1,175 seats in the science group, 920 seats in commerce group and 2,570 seats in humanities group, according to officials.
A BCL leader there said an admission seeker securing 1057th position on the merit list was enrolled for a commerce group subject in exchange for Tk 30,000 bypassing a few who secured better positions on the list.
According to the leader, around Tk 15 lakh has so far been accumulated through the admission trade at Eden College.
When contacted, Eden College BCL President Nijhum said two expelled organising secretaries of the party--Sharmi and Happy--are making these allegations against them.
"I have not visited the campus for two days to avoid such allegations. Our principal has also asked us not to go to her during admission process, which would otherwise give people scopes to spread such allegations against us," she said.
Eden College Principal Prof Mahfuza Chowdhury could not be contacted over her cell phone.
BCL leaders in Dhaka College had stopped the admission process demanding 500 seats under "political" quota, which prompted the National University authorities to introduce the online admission process.
BCL sources said their leaders had taken around Tk 20,000 in advance from some 50-60 students each.
When contacted, Mahiuddin Sarkar, president of Kobi Nazrul College BCL unit, said a few students of Jagannath University might have made such allegations against them.
"This year the college authorities and we sat together and decided to make the admission process free and fair. No one of Bangladesh Chhatra League is involved in such illegal trade," he said.