DU Sufia Kamal Hall residents demand resignation of provost

Around 50 students of Sufia Kamal Hall of Dhaka University yesterday informed the vice chancellor of several problems due to "mismanagement" at the dormitory and demanded resignation of its provost.

Earlier, they staged a sit-in for over nine hours before the residence of VC AAMS Arefin Siddique to meet him on the issue.

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A written complaint submitted to the VC reads, "We, the general students of Sufia Kamal Hall, have been suffering from various problems due to mismanagement for a long time. We have informed the hall administration but to no avail."

"There is mismanagement in the seat allotment process and sometimes legal residential students are threatened that their seats will be cancelled. Attempts are made to grab their seats and they are mistreated. The administrative building, reading room and the television room are used as 'illegal mass living' rooms. Legal aspirants do not get seats, although they are available."

The security arrangement is poor at the dormitory. There is an inconsistency in the price of food and its quality, it reads.

Although the students informed the provost of such mismanagement, she did not take any step in this regard, it says.

Provost Nilufar Nahar, however, denied the allegation.

"We have only 1,320 seats, but more than 1,700 students stay at the hall. As many students, especially the freshers, are unable to bear the costs to live outside halls, we have to allot some additional seats for them on the basis of merit and need."

"I allow helpless junior students to use reading rooms, guestrooms and other spaces. But they have to lead a miserable life because of scarcity of washrooms and kitchens," she told The Daily Star.

Contacted, some students, seeking anonymity, said "some political leaders" on Friday night changed a student's seat illegally. When a house tutor opposed it, the leaders threatened her. On complaining, the hall provost removed the teacher from the charge of allotting seats and rooms.

"As the house tutor illegally allots seats and hinders some newcomers from being admitted, she has been stripped of her responsibility. But she can continue her other duties as a house tutor," said Nilufar Nahar.