Shahadat Sumon, JU correspondent: The protesting teachers and students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has published the ledger of corruption of Vice chancellor Farzana Islam as a booklet following their preannounced program today.
On Tuesday (December 7th), at a press conference conducted by organizer of the movement Mushfiq Us Salehin has disclosed a booklet consisting 224 pages of various information and images of the irregularities, corruption and arbitrariness of prof Islam.
The booklet states that the vice chancellor is at the highest position of any university. But when a VC become loyal to the ruling parties, then he must be involved in corruption, goodwill, irregularities and terrorism. The main sector of corruption is the development based project and the appointment of teacher-officers and staff at the university`s.
In the manifesto of the agitation against corruption, seven-point demand was made to ban all commercial courses and not to appoint vice-chancellors without VC panel election and to fulfil the senate through student parliamentary elections.
While talking about the corruption of VC prof Farzana Islam, Prof Jamal Uddin Runu of Environmental Sciences department said, ” The Vice-Chancellor has lost her moral right to remain in her position after brutal attack on the students by a section of the Chhatra League on November 5. She is the raiser behind the attack and is trying to cover up her involvement in schedule snatching, project money misappropriation.”
Mahathir Muhammad, president of the JU branch Socialist Student Front (Marxist) said, “Removal of the corrupt vice-chancellor is the one-point demand of our movement. The vice-chancellor can no longer remain in her position after the apparent corruption allegations published in the national media. The vice-chancellor’s silence proved that she is guilty. If she is innocence, why she isn’t taking steps by filing case for her defamation.”
Professor Rayhan Rayne, Prof. Khabir Uddin, Prof. Jamal Uddin Runu, Prof Abdul Jabbar Hawlader, Prof Tarek Reza, Prof. Mirza Taslima Sultana were present at the press conference among others.
Besides, activists of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Chhatra Front, Jahangirnagar Cultural Alliance and Bangladesh Shadharan Chhatra Adhikar Shangrakkhan Parishad were also present.
Earlier, ECNEC approved Tk 5 crore for further development of JU. Since then, a section of teachers and students have started protesting against the reorganization of the masterplan, the ambiguity of the tender call. Later, the protesters demanded removal of the Vice-Chancellor through various programs as her alleged involvement in corruption. The protesters blocked Professor Farzana Islam at her residence on November 3. Later, a section of Chhatra League attacked the protesters and injured at least 35 people including teachers and journalists. The authorities announced the closure of the university immediately, but the protesters resumed their demonstration under the banner of Jahangirnagar against corruption.
