New Age | Public university students to stage protests today for cancellation

Students of different public universities, including Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University and Rajshahi University, will stage protests today demanding quashing of the High Court order seeking restoration of a 30 percent quota for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters in government jobs.

The protesters had earlier announced that they would launch tougher actions if their demands were not met by June 30.

The High Court on June 5 asked the government to restore the 30% quota for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters in government jobs.

However, protests broke out in Dhaka and elsewhere within hours of the court’s announcement.

Students of Dhaka University will hold a rally today around 11:00 am at the foot of the anti-terrorist Raju memorial sculpture on the university campus to press their demand for cancellation of quotas for freedom fighters.

Nahid Hasan, a student at UD’s social sciences department and one of the organizers of the movement, told New Age that they will hold a rally on July 1, but have not yet set the time .

“We carried out a continuous agitation program from July 2 to 4. We plan to organize sit-ins and blockade programs across the country during this period,” Nahild informed.

Students of Jahangirnagar University will take out a protest procession around 3:00 p.m. from the university’s central library in support of their demand, according to New Age’s JU correspondent.

Students of Rajshahi University will also hold a protest procession around 11:00 am on the university campus, New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reported.

Students of Rajshahi University on Sunday demanded swift reforms in the existing quota system by reducing the quota to 10 percent in first and second class government jobs.

Several hundred of them, under the banner of the general students of Rajshahi University, formed a human chain on the university’s “Paris road” to press their demands.

Addressing the human chain, Fahim Reza, a student at the department of biochemistry and molecular biology, said that they do not want the quota system in government jobs to be abolished.

“The constitution requires that there should be a quota for backward communities. But it is unconstitutional to include in the quota system people who are not members of backward communities in the eyes of the society. We demand that priority be given to backward communities by urgently reforming the quota system,” he said.

Another student, Shafiqur Islam, said the High Court’s decision on reinstating the old quota system in civil services was not only illogical but also constituted clear discrimination against ordinary students.

On October 4, 2018, the government issued a circular abolishing all 56 percent quotas in the civil service following street protests by students and job seekers from public universities demanding reforms to the quota system introduced in 1972.

Until the abolition, about 56% of government jobs were reserved for candidates from various quotas. Of this, 30% were for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters, 10% for women, 10% for people from underdeveloped districts, 5% for members of indigenous communities and 1% for physically challenged persons.