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Ctg University

No students’ union polls in 22 years

Shahadat Hossain, ctg
Election to Chittagong University Central Students' Union (Cucsu) has been due for 22 years because of the university authorities' disinterest, alleged student leaders and teachers.
Different student bodies of the university said they always wanted the election and had pressed the authorities for it on various occasions.
“All it needs to hold the Cucsu election is the will of the university administration. But the authorities do not want that as an elected student body may not allow them to enjoy absolute power,” said ANM Munir Ahmad, a professor of political science.
If there was an effective student union, the administration would have to take students' demands into consideration and allow their representatives in the decision-making process, said Prof Ahmad, also a senate member of the university.
The university is not following the Chittagong University Act, 1973, said Gazi Saleh Uddin, a professor of sociology.
“Had everything gone according to the act, the polls to Cucsu, and election of registered graduate representatives and teachers' representatives to the senate would be held regularly,” he said.
Prof Gazi, also a former dean of the social science faculty, said the university was failing to produce future leaders due to irregular holding of the Cucsu polls.
According to Abdul Mannan, former vice-chancellor of CU, bad politics intruded into the university due to the lack of a vibrant student union. "Here all pose themselves as leaders, and try to dominate each other, which often results in dreadful conflicts,” he said.
Hasibul Islam, a student of the English department, also stressed the need for elected student representatives to bring forward the demands of general stu-
dents.
Since the inception of the university in 1966, Cucsu elections were held only six times. In the first election in 1970, Mohammad Ibrahim was elected the vice- president (VP).
The last Cucsu polls were held in 1990 through which Md Nazim Uddin became the VP. But the momentum was lost later that year when Farukuzzaman, a leader of a student organisation Chhatra Oikya, was killed in a clash with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami backed student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Nazim Uddin is still the Cucsu VP in papers.
Talking to The Daily Star, Nazim Uddin also emphasised on holding the election immediately.
Probal Majumder, president of CU unit of the leftleaning student organisation Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, said Cucsu was the centre of all democratic movement of students in Chittagong. But the university authorities did not want to hold the election as
they feared movements, he said.
Ruling Awami League backed Bangladesh Chhatra League had always been in favour of the election as it is a mode of ensuring student rights, said its CU unit president Mamunul Hoque.
According to Nesarul Islam Nazmul, senior vice-president of the CU unit of BNP backed student organisation Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, students were being deprived of extra-curricular activities due to the absence of the union.
“I have a plan to hold the Cucsu election," said CU VC Md Anwarul Azim Arif, adding that the time was not favourable yet.
“Once the situation returns to normalcy, I will consider the issue," he said.
On February 8 this year, the university authorities had to suspend all classes and examinations until March 15 following the death of two students in clashes between Bangladesh Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir.