JnU students stage demo for dormitory

Students of Jagannath University have staging demonstration boycotting classes to press home their demands for constructing residential halls at the place of Dhaka’s old central jail. The students gathered on the campus around 9am on Sunday and started their demonstration locking the main gate of the university. They announced to continue agitation if their demands are not fulfilled. They also demanded to build up a hall in the name of Bangabandhu and others halls would be named after four national leaders. Agitated students said they are facing many problems including residential, class and transportation shortage. They are not enjoying dormitory facilities although eleven years have passed the college has turned into university. They alleged that this is only public university where thousands of students cannot reside in dormitory as varsity students. Besides, campus area is also very small. At present the students are facing various problems at rented houses over the ongoing issue of terrorism, extremism, the students also alleged. Md Ohiduzzaman, registrar of the university, earlier told that the authorities sent a letter to the Home Ministry over permanent ownership of the former Dhaka Central Jail’s land on March 23, 2014. In the letter, JnU authorities mentioned that the land of the central jail, after shifting the prisoners, could be used for building residential halls to solve the housing crisis of the students. More than 6,000 prisoners of Dhaka Central Jail were shifted to the newly constructed jail in Keraniganj on July 29, 2016. When contacted, Nur Mohammad, proctor of the university, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are talking to the students to solve the issue peacefully. We have urged them to be calm as August is the month of mourning.” “August 7, 2016, we had contacted with the authorities of Directorate of Registration over the land but they did not say anything yet,” he added. Addition police were deployed in and around of the Jagannath University to avoid any unpleasant incident over the issue, Kotwali police station OC Abu Bakr Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune.