Students of different public universities including Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University and Rajshahi University will hold demonstrations today demanding cancellation of the High Court order for the restoration of 30 per cent quota for freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren in government jobs.
Earlier, the protesters announced that they would launch tougher movements if their demand was not met by June 30.
On June 5, the HC asked the government to restore the 30 per cent quota for children and grandchildren of the freedom fighters in government jobs.
Protests, however, sparked in Dhaka and other places hours after the court’s announcement was made in this regard.
Dhaka University students will hold a rally at the base of Anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture on the university campus today at about 11:00am to press home their demand for cancelling freedom fighters’ quota
Nahid Hasan, a student at the DU’s social sciences department and one of the organisers of the movement, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they would hold a rally on July 1, but they are yet to fix the time.
‘We have taken continuous agitation programme from July 2 to July 4. We are planning to hold sit-ins and blockade programmes across the country during the timeframe,’ Nahild informed.
Jahangirnagar University students will bring out a protest procession at about 3:00pm from University’s Central Library in support of the demand, according to the JU correspondent of ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.
Students of Rajshahi University will also hold a protest procession at about 11:00am on the university campus, ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· Staff Correspondent in Rajshahi reported.
Rajshahi University students, meanwhile, on Sunday demanded quick reforms of the existing quota system by reducing the quota to 10 per cent in first and second-class government jobs.
Several hundred of them under the banner of Rajshahi University general students formed a human chain on the university’s ‘Paris road’ to press home their demand.
Addressing the human chain, Fahim Reza, a student of biochemistry and molecular biology department, said that they did not want the quota system in government jobs to be abolished.
‘The constitution mandates that there will be a quota for backward communities. But, it is unconstitutional to include people, who are not members of backward communities in the eyes of the society, in the quota system. We demand that priority be given to backward communities by urgently reforming the quota system,’ he said.
Another student Shafiqur Islam said that the High Court decision on reinstatement of the previous quota system in the civil service was not only illogical but also a clear discrimination against the common students.
On October 4, 2018, the government issued a circular abolishing all the 56 per cent quotas in the public service in the wake of street protests by the public university students and jobseekers demanding reforms to the quota system introduced in 1972.
Until the abolition, about 56 per cent of government jobs were reserved for candidates from various quotas. Of this, 30 per cent were for freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren, 10 per cent for women, 10 per cent for people of underdeveloped districts, 5 per cent for members of indigenous communities and 1 per cent for physically challenged people.
