Classes resumes, campus becomes normal
The education ministry will set up an commission to investigate the allegations that have been levelled against the Jahangirnagar University vice-chancellor, Anwar Hossain, after the return of the president, Abdul Hamid, who is now in Singapore.
Classes, meanwhile, resumed at Jahangirnagar University on Sunday after an unscheduled closure of four days when as a group of teachers teamed up as General Teachers’ Forum had confined Anwar to his office demanding his resignation. The university transport service also became normal on the day.
Two other groups of teachers, however, opposed the teachers who laid siege to the vice-chancellor’s office.
The teachers on demonstrations called off their programme of siege for 15 days after a meeting with the education minister on Saturday night where the minister assured the teachers of looking into their demand after an investigation of the allegations they had levelled against the vice-chancellor.
At least two high officials of the ministry on Sunday told New Age that the ministry had began work on the inquiry commission
commission proposal which will soon be sent to the president’s office via the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ministry officials said that the commission would begin work when the president approved the commission.
Abdul Hamid reached Singapore Sunday morning for a seven-day stay for a follow-up on his eye check-up in Singapore National Eye Centre. He will also have his medical check-up in Mount Elizabeth Hospital. He is expected back on August 31.
According to the Jahangirnagar University Act 1973, the president of the republic is the chancellor of the university.
Officials said the commission might be instituted with two or three members from the ministry and the University Grants Commission and it would be given 15 working days to submit the report.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on Saturday night said that the ministry would set up a ‘committee to investigate allegations that have been levelled against the vice-chancellor’.
The education secretary, Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, told reporters that the ministry was likely to begin the process on Sunday.
The General Teachers’ Forum also issued a statement, signed by 370 teachers, levelling charges against the vice-chancellor.
The charges include no trial of the assault on teachers, freedom fighter’s quota violation, recruitment of incompetent people as teachers, harsh comments against teachers to the media, no steps regarding the violence that took place on August 1 and February 12, ruining the campus environment, misusing university funds, and forcibly entering the vice-chancellor’s office by ignoring the demonstrations of the teachers.
The Jahangirnagar University Teachers’ Association since April 27 had demanded the resignation of the vice-chancellor, accusing him of not taking punitive measures against the university unit Chhatra League’s general secretary Razib Ahmed Rasel for assaulting economics department lecturer Nurul Haqu, also a syndicate member, on April 6.
On July 24, the High Court, in response to a petition filed by four teachers and a student, had directed the university authorities to immediately take necessary steps for the continuation of day-to-day functions of the university.
The Jahangirnagar University Teachers’ Association, however, called off its agitation programmes on July 30 after the July 24 High Court order but the General Teachers’ Forum was set up and the agitation continued.
Jahangirnagar University experienced several rounds of movement in the past three years which disrupted academic activities.
Anwar assumed office of the vice-chancellor after his predecessor Sharif Enamul Kabir resigned in the face of protests by students and teachers over ‘irregularities’ and ‘nepotism’ in the appointment of teachers on May 17, 2012.
Anwar was later elected the vice-chancellor through the university senate.
Courtesy of New Age
