Teachers illegally recruited by RU ex-VC give 72-hour ultimatum to join post

A section of teachers who were illegally recruited by the former vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University (RU), Prof M Abdus Sobhan, gave a 72 hours ultimatum on Monday to allow them to join their posts.

They gave the ultimatum during a human chain organized on the Paris Road of the university campus at noon.

In the afternoon, the acting vice-chancellor of the University, Professor Anand Kumar Saha, filed a General Diary (GD) with the police against the section of the illegal recruits (GD-1259).

At the human chain, one of the recruits Omar Farooq Fardin, the former general secretary of Rajshahi district unit Chhatra League, said: "We are giving 72 hours to the acting vice-chancellor. If the vice-chancellor does not solve our problems, we will be forced to take stricter measures.”

Another Abdullah Al-Masud, the former deputy secretary of RU unit Chhatra League, said: "We were supposed to be in our respective offices. But we had to take to the streets to demand withdrawal of the suspension order that prevented us from joining.

“We got the job based on our qualifications. Before questioning our qualifications, people should take a look at our certificates.”

Vice-President of RU unit Chhatra League Russell said: "We've been fighting for almost two months to join our respective posts. We are still carrying out peaceful protests. If the university administration does not solve our problems immediately, we will not allow any regular activities of this university to continue in the coming days.”

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Atiqur Rahman Sumon, former vice-president of RU unit Chhatra League, moderated the event. Out of the 138 recruits, about 50 recruited teachers, officers and employees participated in the human chain.

The newly-recruited people have been pressurizing acting VC Professor Anand Kumar Saha to allow them to join their respective workplaces, says Motihar police station OC Siddiqur Rahman citing the general diary filed by the VC.

It states that at 9:30 am on June 19, some 50-60 of the illegal recruits started making noise in front of the gate of Prof Anand’s house. His wife and daughters became terrified.

The miscreants created a chaotic situation in the compound for about two hours. Feroz Mahmud, Matiur Rahman Mortaza and others were among the troublemakers that day.

At 7pm on June 22, some people including Indranil Mishra and Shahriar Mahbub staged a showdown in front of the VC’s residence, reads the GD.

On December 10 last year, the Ministry of Education issued an order to stop all recruitment processes at Rajshahi University and the then vice-chancellor suspended all the appointments.

However, on the last day of his term, on May 6 this year, ignoring the suspension order, he appointed 138 people on an ad hoc basis. Among the recruits, there are nine teachers of different departments. These teachers were appointed in violation of the Section 29 and Sub-Section C-4 (3) of the 1973 Act.

The Ministry of Education constituted a four-member inquiry committee to look into the matter. The committee then submitted a report to the ministry after meeting the administrative officials of Rajshahi University, and collecting various data.