Students of different polytechnic institutes, including Dhaka Polytechnic Institute and Dhaka Mohila Polytechnic Institute, held demonstrations demanding end of discrimination against them in recruitments, blocking Tejgaon Sat Rasta crossing in the city for more than six hours causing heavy traffic congestions across a vast area.
The demonstrations brought vehicle movement to almost a standstill in the Bijoy Sarani, Tejgaon, Mohakhali, Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Kawran Bazar, Moghbazar, Hatirjheel, Banglamotor, Kakrail and Shahbagh areas on the weekday.
Commuters were seen walking along footpaths after they had left transports that got stuck in the congestions, while motorcyclists also got on the footpaths during the demonstrations starting from 12 noon and continued till 6:30pm.
The protesting students pressed for a six-point demand, including the removal of all craft instructors who were recruited in 2021 without having technical background.
The demonstrators left the road after Technical and Madrasah Education Division secretary Farid Uddin Ahmed met with them in the evening with assurances of reforming the technical education sector and addressing the polytechnic students’ demands.
Their other demands are—none but engineers would be allowed to apply for the post of deputy assistant engineer, while deputy assistant engineer or its equivalent post must be reserved for diploma engineers; the course of diploma engineering has to be increased to duration of four years, while the duration of each semester should be six months.
They also demanded reform in the Directorate of Technical Education so that anyone without technical education is appointed to lead the directorate; amendment in the directorate’s controversial rules for teachers’ recruitment; and ending teachers’ crisis by recruiting in the vacant posts.    Â
They also demanded ensuring 100 per cent seats for diploma students for higher studies in four proposed technical colleges.
Dhaka Polytechnic Institute mechanical engineering department third year student Syed Khalid Hossain Nirob told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they would not allow any discrimination in the country.
‘Many officials who were recruited in the autocratic Sheikh Hasina regime were still working in different sectors and they are creating discrimination,’ he added.
Md Musfiq Islam, a Dhaka Polytechnic Institute civil engineering student, said that they had informed the matter to the Bangladesh Technical Education Board for several times, but received only assurance without any execution.
‘We don’t want to create public sufferings. We have tried and tried to press our demands. The technical education board assured us of meeting the demands by August 29, but did the same,’ Musfiq told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.
The students, however, cleared many emergency services mostly ambulances carrying serious patients.
According to Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional commissioner for traffic Khondaker Nazmul Hassan, the city has two major thoroughfares—Sat Rasta and Jahangir gate road that connect the city’s north and south.
‘As the Sat Rasta crossing was blocked, we have diverted the traffic to the other road. Another road has to take 40 per cent additional traffic pressure. People suffered, but our team is working to reduce it,’ he told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· in the afternoon.
