Students of Jahangirnagar University on Friday demonstrated on the campus demanding scrapping of the recently delivered High Court verdict restoring the quota system in government and semi-government jobs in the country.
Over a hundred students from various departments staged a human chain on the road adjacent to the university鈥檚 central Shaheed Minar at about 3:00pm on the day to press home their demand.
Speakers at the human chain criticised the verdict, claiming that the quota system in civil services goes against the spirits of the War of Independence in 1971.
Addressing the human chain, Mahfuz Islam Megh of the environmental sciences department said, 鈥楾he government is trying to extend its tenure by establishing a power structure that is solely loyal to it. Providing quota facilities to a certain group of people is nothing but part of a plan.鈥�
Terming the quota system discriminatory, he also said that the HC verdict would go against the interest of the majority of the population.
Arif Sohel of the international relations department said, 鈥榃e respect sacrifice of freedom fighters. But a certain group of people are gaining advantages in the name of the War of Independence.鈥�
Citing three main principles incorporated in the constitution namely equality, social dignity, and social justice, he said that the quota system went against the principles.
Later, the students warned of a tougher movement if the verdict was not scrapped.
Earlier on June 5, the High Court asked the government to restore the 30 per cent quota for the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters while recruiting cadre and non-cadre officers in the civil service.
The bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat issued the directive after declaring 鈥榠llegal鈥� part of the government circular issued on October 4, 2018, abolishing the freedom fighter quota in the public service.
The government circular announced abolishing all the 56 per cent quotas in the public service in the wake of street protests by public university students and jobseekers demanding reforms to the quota system introduced in 1972.