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Resign by morning today

Agitators set deadline for Buet VC, deputy

Staff Correspondent
Students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) yesterday gave the VC and his deputy until 10:00am today to resign.
“We hope they [VC and Pro-VC] will resign within this time. If not, we will announce tougher programmes tomorrow [Sunday],” said Mahmudur Rahman Palash, a front-liner of the movement and student of civil engineering.
He said the students would gather on the campus at 10:00am and continue their agitation, which included human chain and burning of the effigies of the duo.
Palash was addressing a student meeting in front
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FROM PAGE 20 of the VC's residence around 3:00pm yesterday, when the students called off their agitation for the day.
Meanwhile, VC Prof SM Nazrul Islam yesterday said he would take step in this regard after talking to the minister concerned, while Pro-VC Prof M Habibur Rahman said he would talk with the appointment authorities.
On April 7, Buet teachers launched an agitation, including work abstention, bringing 16 allegations against the VC and Pro-VC. Students and university officials joined the agitation inmid-July.
Yesterday's four-hour student agitation began around 11:15am with a human chain in front of civil engineering building on the campus. Later, around 1,000 students brought out a procession and marched on the campus chanting slogans demanding removal of theVC and Pro-VC.
Many teachers of the university also joined the procession. They were seen wearing black T-shirts that read “Save Buet, remove the VC and Pro-VC”.
The teachers joined the agitation on their own, not under the banner of Buet Teachers’ Association, as the
High Court had on July 31 directed the association not to stage any demonstration for the sake of smooth academic activities, Prof Ashraful Islam, general secretary of the teachers’ body, told The Daily Star.
When the procession ended around noon the students staged an hour-long demonstration in front of the administrative building, where the offices of the VC and the Pro-VC are located.
Meanwhile, the demonstrating teachers yesterday held separate meetings with the VC and Pro-VC at their offices and requested them to resign within the shortest possible time “to save the university and for the sake of students' welfare”.
In the hour-long meeting, theVC told the teachers that he would take the next step consulting the minister concerned.
“I will not comment on anything right now,” said the VC when journalists asked him about his next course of action.
During the meeting with the Pro-VC, the teachers became furious when two activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League entered the room interrupting the discussion. The teachers alleged that the Pro-VC had
called the activists for his protection.
The Chhatra League activists soon left the room in the face of strong protest. They, however, threatened newsmen not to publish any photos showing their presence in the meeting.
“One of the activists warned my photographer and me that they will not let any journalist enter the campus if their photos are published in the newspaper,” said a reporter of Bangla daily ProthomAlo.
Since the teachers, students and staff of the univer-sity started agitation demanding resignations of the VC and his deputy, academic activities totally came to a halt and the university faced an unexpected closure. After 44 days of break the university opened on August 25 but no classes have been held since.
Meanwhile, the university authorities issued a notice asking the deans, heads of departments, teachers and officials concerned to resume classes and start the first-year admission process immediately.
Since last week, the government has not either taken any visible initiative for settling the crisis at the university.
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