CMC girls cram into lone hostel

Kanta Hostel, the only dormitory for female students of Chittagong Medical College. Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder

The Kanta Hostel is the only dormitory for female students.

Principal Dr Chowdhury B Mahmud said the female students are forced to live in common room and reading rooms in the hostel. Sixty-five students are living in the common room without any ventilation and other facilities, Dr Mahmud said. They share only one toilet, so it is easily understood how our female students are passing their days here, he added.

"We face difficulty to provide seats for the first year students. We urgently need to expand our hostel facilities for female students otherwise situation will worsen further," he said.

The principal, however, skipped some other questions.

The ministers including Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and Food Minister Abdullah Al Noman visited the CMC on different occasions. During meetings with officials and teachers they assured them of addressing the problems immediately which was mere rhetoric as they only paid lip-service with an 'eye-wash', campus sources said.

"We always received soothing words with sugar-coated assurance from the ministers and high officials, but we did not see any development or translation of their words into action. So we find it hopeless," said a senior teacher in an emotion-choked voice seeking anonymity.

We have only one hostel for female students with a capacity of 200 inmates at Chittagong Medical College, he said. Of total 1000 students, 50 per cent are girls. Our female students are living in this hostel in a horrible and sub-human condition," the senior teacher added.

"Female students more than double the capacity, crammed into this hostel. They are forced to live in a suffocating atmosphere and even three students sleep over a single cot there," he said.

Caretaker Parvin Akter said "The inmates are really living in a miserable plight. We are also undone to accommodate such a large number of students in this particular hostel".

Bainnya Chowdhury, a fourth year student and resident of the hostel, said "we have no reading room facilities here as the existing ones are occupied for living".

Sources said that the plan for increasing hostel facilities for female students remained shelved for a long time for non-allocation of fund due from the government.

The CMC authorities took it up with the concerned ministry time and again without any tangible result due to bureaucratic tangles, sources added.

Meanwhile, the CMC academic council at a meeting decided vacate 'Lutfus Salam Hostel' of male students to accommodate the female students. It has a capacity of 47 seats.

The college authorities do not take any step to vacate the hostel occupied by the ruling party cadres, sources said.

It is difficult to vacate Lutfus Salam Hostel at the moment as authorities don't want to face hassle, a senior official said.

Ruling party leaders denied the allegation of occupation of hostel by cadres or outsiders at the CMC.