Students of Rajshahi University (RU) Sunday staged a demonstration and barricaded the university buses in protest of the acute transport crisis which has been prevailing since long.
Witnesses said over a hundred students barricaded several university buses around 2pm because buses of some routes were cancelled without prior notice. They staged a demonstration and chanted slogans against the university authorities. Later, the students released the buses after RU Proctor Prof Tariqul Hasan assured them of taking initiatives to reduce their sufferings.
According to the university’s transport office, more than half of the total student service buses have gone out of order.
However, the students alleged that the authorities concerned frequently cancelled the scheduled buses without prior notice and thus the buses were damaged or in need of repairs. They also alleged that each of them has to pay Tk300 as transport fees per year but the university authorities does not pay heed to the transport crisis.
According to a student, for the last few days, the authorities concerned reduced the number of buses from three to one on the route to Rajshahi railway station and cancelled the buses of few other routes claiming crisis of sufficient transport.
The official at RU transport office said about half of the total number of students’ buses had been worn out due to lack of repairing for years.
Last year the authorities of BRTC handed over three second hand buses to RU authorities after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to gift three buses to the university during her visit to inaugurate the foundation of the Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Hall in 2011, transport office said.
Transport office added that the buses given by BRTC had gone out of order just after three months, alleging that the buses were earlier used at the Dhaka University.
“Currently there are about 40 buses for the students, while half of the buses have worn out due to repairing crisis,” the transport office told the Dhaka Tribune.
Authorities' indifferent attitude has triggered discontent among the students, who earlier vandalised the transport office and damaged buses several times over the ongoing transport shortage.
Prof M Sayeduzzaman, administrator of RU transport department, said a huge amount of money was required to repair the unused buses and there was no fund to buy new ones.
When contacted, RU Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Chowdhury Sarowar Jahan told the Dhaka Tribune: “All our efforts to solve the transport crisis proved failure due to fund crisis.”
The authorities were trying to resolve the problem as soon as possible, he added.
