Agitated teachers of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur detained vice chancellor AKM Nurun Nabi in his office for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, demanding immediate payment of their outstanding salaries.
Teachers said they are leading miserable lives as they have not received any pay for five months, forcing them to opt for a movement.
“We are not getting salary for the last five months and we have no other way but to confine teachers,” Saidul Haque, a teacher of the Bangla department, told Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday, “We will continue our agitation till our salary is released,” he added.
VC AKM Nurun Nabi told the Dhaka Tribune that teachers had been confining him to his office since Tuesday morning.
About the salary crisis, the VC said: “It is true that they are not getting salary for the last four-and-a-half months…but the previous VC created the complexities”.
He said the University Grants Commission (UGC) had released the salaries of 336 teachers and employees, but it had not released the salaries of some 338 others who were recruited without UGC approval during the tenure of the previous VC, Abdul Jalil Miah.
The incumbent VC said the UGC is investigating the whole incident and some unapproved teachers and employees might be regularised.
‘The unapproved teachers requested me not to release the salary of the approved teachers and employees till submission of the UGC report,” he said.
Nurun Nabi said he believes the UGC will submit its report very shortly and the problems of the university will be resolved.
Several university teachers said the approved and unapproved teachers were in opposing stances which could lead to clashes.
The UGC, in a press release issued on Wednesday, said a committee led by its member Atful Hye Shibley was investigating the incident at Rokeya University and the report would be published soon.
It also said that UGC had granted over Tk21m as salary for the approved 336 teachers and employees, and that they should have received the salary last month.
Former VC Abdul Jalil Miah was forced to quit in May after UGC recommended that he be terminated from his post for “corruption and nepotism”.
A three-member probe committee of the UGC made the recommendation, saying that it was not possible to resolve the crisis of the university with Abdul Jalil Miah in the VC office.
