UGC Chairman at Patuakhali : Journalists' questions obstructed

A view-sharing meeting was organized at the university's student-teacher auditorium on the occasion of the arrival of University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Professor Dr. S. M. A. Fayez at Patuakhali University of Science and Technology (PUST).

Although the meeting, organized on October 18 (Saturday), was supposed to have the UGC Chairman exchange views with students, teachers, officials and employees, in reality no one got the opportunity to express any views. This created anger among the students.

University student Fazle Rabbi Pritam said in a mocking tone, "The university administration must have booked a launch ticket to Kuakata for the UGC Chairman, otherwise we could have expressed our views."

Shibli Ahmed, another eighth semester student, said, “I have never seen such a one-sided exchange of views in my life. There are many problems on our campus, which have not been resolved even today. The university administration could have called the event a ‘discussion meeting’ instead of an ‘exchange meeting’. Perhaps the students were not allowed to express their views to hide various irregularities in the university.”

Meanwhile, the meeting was supposed to start at 3 pm, but it started around 4 pm. Although the names of students were first on the meeting list, the presence of students was negligible; rather, most of the attendees were teachers.

After the event, the university campus journalists wanted to talk to the UGC Chairman and ask some questions, but Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Kazi Rafiqul Islam stopped them with various excuses. Other teachers also demanded to ask questions in their presence in a kind of forceful manner. Considering the situation, the journalists left the place after asking a few questions.