Many from 2nd merit list protest being still in dark

Some college aspirants and their guardians demonstrated before Viqarunnisa Noon School and College yesterday, protesting the college authorities' move not to enrol the candidates, whose names were in the second merit list.

About 50 such protestors blocked the road in front of the institution's main branch at Siddheswari in the capital for about 20 minutes from 12:30pm, creating traffic congestion. They said the education ministry in its second merit list published on Sunday specified the colleges where the students are to be enrolled.

"My daughter was supposed to be enrolled in this college, but the authorities are not admitting her saying that there is no available seat," said Habib.

One of the admission seekers said, "I applied to the ministry to change my college to Viqarunnisa and my application was granted. I found my name in the list uploaded on the website. So why is the college not admitting us?"

"We were force to block the road as the college authorities would not respond to us after barring us from entering the college," said Shamima Akhter. She said they stopped demonstrating after law enforcers intervened and arranged a meeting with the principal.

Shamima said they would meet the principal today.

Despite repeated attempts, The Daily Star could not reach Principal Sufia Khatun for her comments. The ministry on Sunday published the second merit list of 17,647 students aspiring to get admitted to colleges on its website "www.xiclassadmission. gov.bd." Of the students, 6,921 students had applied to change their colleges.