Bhasani university shut again
Authorities of Maolana Bhasani University of Science and Technology (MBUST) have again declared all the activities of Food Technology and Nutritional Science (FTNS) department including its classes and examinations closed for an indefinite period.
They also declared all students of the department 'unwanted' on the campus and directed them to leave the dormitories by yesterday morning.
The university authorities took these steps on Tuesday night after a meeting between the agitating students of FTNS department and authorities ended without any decision in the afternoon.
Over 200 students of FTNS department have been boycotting classes for the last eight months (since July 12 last year) demanding BSc (Engineering) degree instead of BSc (Honours) degree.
"We had to close the FTNS department again to avoid any untoward incidents on the campus," Prof M Nurul Islam, vice-chancellor of MBUST, told this correspondent yesterday.
The agitating students observed a token hunger strike on Tangail Shaheed Minar premises yesterday to press for their three-point demand -- providing engineering degree, withdrawal of all 'false' cases filed by the university authorities and withdrawal of the university authorities' suspension order on the students of the department.
Earlier, following a violent agitation by the students on the campus on September 21 last year, the university authorities had declared all the activities including classes and examinations suspended for indefinite period, and also declared all students of the department unwanted on the campus.
After four and a half moths, the university authorities opened the department on February 8 and urged the agitating students to return to classes but the students remained firm on their demand and continued boycotting classes.
Rokeya Begum, chairman of FTNS department, told this correspondent that the University Grants Commission (UGC), following a meeting of experts, has already declared that the students cannot be provided engineering degree as per their existing syllabus, but the emotional students did not agree to accept it.
The FTNS students, on the other hand, said they will not return to classes until their demands are met as the university authorities have already showed a hard-line attitude by filing false cases against 195 students, sending some of them to jail and expelling 45 students in last few months to foil the movement.
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