JnU students block road near edu ministry, demand army supervision for campus building construction

Students of Jagannath University have blocked the intersection in front of the Ministry of Education to push home their three-point demand, including handing over the overseeing authority for the construction of the university's second building to Bangladesh Army.

Their demand also included the inclusion in the UGC pilot project and an increase in the university's budget allocation.

More than 2,000 students of the university participated in the march.

JnU student Tausib Mahmud Sohan, one of the spokespersons of the movement, said, "We will give the Ministry of Education a three-day ultimatum regarding our demands. They have to give priority to Jagannath University, under the hit project, and submit it in writing by today."

Iqbal Hossain Sikder, president of Chhatra Shibir's JnU unit, said Jagannath University is the most neglected university in the country.

"We do not get the facilities and services they need as university students. If we compare the budgets of other universities, we can see that JnU gets the least allocation, followed by the National University. We will not accept this discrimination. Although the work on our second campus started in 2018, not much has been done so far. We need to finish the work on our second campus quickly," he added.

Regarding the UGC pilot project, he said, the work on the pilot project has not started yet. However, if it starts, it must include Jagannath University.

Meanwhile, the blockade has caused severe traffic jams at five points on various routes in Dhaka city.

The students' three-point demand includes replacing the current project director, who was appointed during the "fascist government" era, with a skilled officer from the Bangladesh Army within seven days. They demanded an announcement be made from the Ministry of Education that the work of the second campus has been handed over to the army and a clear outline should be given about the process of handover (on a priority basis), immediate measures should be taken to acquire the remaining 11 acres of land and all the immoral agreements made during the dictatorship regarding the old campus should be canceled.

Earlier on 4 November, they also blocked the road in Dhaka's Tantibazar area with the same demands.