The Santal Students’ Union has demanded re-admission of their fellows at the Catholic Christian College Hostel in the Rajshahi city and an end to all kinds of discrimination against the ethnic minority students at the hall.
The union put forth their eight-point demands on Saturday at a press conference in the city and submitted a memorandum to the Rajshahi mayor for the implementation of their charter of demands.
Sources said more than a hundred of ethnic minority students from different educational institutes of Rajshahi city gathered in front the Christian hostel in court area at around 12:00pm and brought out a procession.
After parading the main roads of the city, they submitted a memorandum to the city mayor, AHM Kharuzzaman Liton, at his office.
Later the students organised a press conference at the Metropolitan Press Club and briefed the newsmen on their grievances.
The ethnic student leaders said the authority of the Christian hall cancelled 14 seats of the ethnic minority students without any prior notice on December 25 last year.
They alleged that the hostel authority tortured the ethnic minority students several times so that they left the hostel.
They threatened that if the authorities concerned did not meet their demands immediately, they would go for harder action.
They also demanded reducing of all kinds of fees at the hostel, free accommodation for the ultra poor students, a library and ensuring of the seats for ethnic minority students at the hostel.
Santal Students’ Union president Joshef Hasda, general secretary Habil Marandi, ethnic minority students’ leaders Ami Tudu and Sohga Mardi spoke at the news briefing, among others.
When contacted, the Rajshahi city mayor told New Age that he would take legal action in this regard. He would sit with the hostel authority, the tribal leaders and the tribal student leaders to solve the problems, he added.
