People from all walks of life in Naogaon on Saturday protested at the government鈥檚 move to close Naogaon Medical College.
They brought out a protest procession in the town and later held a short rally in front of the medical college.
Addressing the rally, the speakers said that they had learnt through media reports that the government was planning to shut six newly established medical colleges, including Naogaon Medical College, and to transfer the students from these colleges to other medical institutions, on the allegation that they could not reach the expected standards within the set timeframe.
Iskandar Hossain, convener of the Naogaon Medical College Protection Movement Committee, said that Naogaon Medical College could not be deemed substandard.
鈥楩or every four students, there is one teacher, which is not the case in any other medical college in Bangladesh and the college consistently ranks first or second in the exams conducted under Rajshahi Medical University,鈥� Iskandar said, adding that聽 the decision to shut down the college is an irrational decision by the government.
Hossain warned that if the college was shut down, Naogaon would stop supplying rice and mangoes.
They also threatened to go for tougher programmes, including hunger strikes, if the government did not backtrack on its decision to shut down their medical college.
Earlier, the previous government established Naogaon Medical College on January 10, 2019, and the college has been running its activities on its temporary campus at Naogaon Sadar Hospital since then.
At present, the college has 320 students studying across six academic batches and 50 teachers.