Students block Shahbagh for 6 hours, demand diploma holders stop using 'engineer' title
The blockade began around 3pm when several hundred students from Buet and several private engineering universities took to the streets with processions and slogans.
Students from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) and several private engineering universities blocked the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka for nearly six hours today (26 August) over three demands, including barring diploma engineers from using the title "engineer" before their names.
The blockade began around 3pm when several hundred students took to the streets with processions and slogans.
The protest caused heavy traffic congestion in and around Shahbagh, bringing immense suffering to commuters.
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The blockade was lifted around 8:30pm, said Shahbagh Police Station Officer-in-Charge Khalid Mansur, adding that traffic on the roads returned to normal soon after.
Among their other demands, the students opposed the promotion of diploma engineers to the 9th grade of government service and called for opportunities for graduate engineers in 10th-grade entry-level jobs. They also protested alleged death threats against Rokonuzzaman Rokon, a former Buet student.
The students demand that the existing 33% quota for diploma engineers in the ninth-grade posts of government service be abolished, and appointments be made solely on the basis of merit.
They demand that the current 100% quota reserved for diploma engineers in the tenth-grade positions be scrapped, and that these posts be made open to all candidates.
They insist that no one without a bachelor's degree in engineering (BSc) should be allowed to use the title of "engineer." If anyone without such a degree uses the title, legal action must be taken against them, they said.
