RU students suffer due to nagging power outages
Academic and other activities at Rajshahi University are being seriously hampered due to recurring load-shedding every day on the campus.
Students and teachers of the university have been experiencing eight to 12 hours of load-shedding every day since the last few months.
The examinees are bearing the brunt of power outages as examinations are going on in at least 20 departments.
Meanwhile, the Met office in Rajshahi city has been recording temperature around 40 degree Celsius during the last 2-3 days.
Habibur Rahman of Shaheed Habibur Rahman Hall, said “Load-shedding at short intervals everyday has made our life miserable”. The situation remained unchanged since early March, he added.
Rakib Ahmed, another resident of the same hall, told this correspondent that he cannot take preparation adequately for his MBA final examination as he faces load-shedding for long time every night.
Md Bazlar Hossain Sweet, a student of Economics department said, "How would it be possible to prepare ourselves for nation building while the government could not ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to higher educational institutions like the university?"
The university authorities are not paying heed to the problem of severe power crisis on the campus as they are using generator or IPS at their offices and residences, he alleged.
A student of the university, Farhana Mallika, said "Frequent power cuts on the campus everyday, especially during classes and night, severely hampers studies of the students".
Shipon Ahmed, president of RU unit Students Union, urged the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to resolve the present power crisis. Otherwise, we will launch agitation to realise our demand, he said.
Mirza Mohammad Moatasim Billah, additional chief engineer of RU, said that the university is getting less than 50 percent electricity supply while its usual demand is 1.50 to 2.20 megawatt.
Rajshahi Power Development Board (PDB) officials said, they are being supplied only 24Mw power on an average from the national grid against the daily demand of around 50Mw in the city.
Contacted, RU Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Mohammad Nurullah said, to face the situation, the teachers, students and officials of the university need to be more careful while using electricity.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments