CU non-resident students cry fiasco
(Left) Alaol Hall of Chittagong University. (Right) Non-resident students of Chittagong University crowd the Sholoshahar Railway Station in the port city.Photo: STAR
Thousands of students shuttle back and forth around 22 kilometers everyday between Chittagong city and Chittagong University (CU) to attend their classes due to lack of adequate dormitories on the campus. A total of 18,000 students have been studying in 35 departments under six faculties and three institutes at the university. Of them, over 12,000 students are to attend their classes by shuttle trains or buses from the port city, hampering their academic life seriously. There are six dormitories -- Shah Jalal Hall, Shah Amanat Hall, Suhrawardy Hall, Alaol Hall, F Rahman Hall and Abdur Rab Hall, for male students and three dormitories Shamsunnahar Hall, Pritilata Hall and Khaleda Zia Hall, for the female ones. The dormitories can provide accommodation for around 4,500 students, only one-fourth of the students. Around 1,000 male students stay in around 30 cottages, privately owned rented house alongside the campus while others live in the port city, some 22 kilometers off the campus, sources said. Besides, several thousand non-resident students are forced to live at the relatives' houses or messes. The non-residents numbering over 12,000 are to attend their classes and return home by six shuttle trains and some minibuses named Tori plying between the university railway station and New Market in the city. The students said they get studies seriously hampered as one is to spend at least four hours a day to go to the university and return home due to lack of adequate number of dormitories in the university. Mohammad Wahiduzzaman said he starts from his Agrabad residence at 6:40am everyday to catch a shuttle train, which leaves Old Railway Station at 7:20am for the campus. He said he is to wait minimum an hour after his practical classes to return the city by a train at 5:20pm that causes waste of over four hours. He said he usually avoids the minibuses as they offer a disgusting journey taking other students on the way. The students often lock into altercation with the drivers and helpers of the minibuses centring the matter. He blamed such a situation for the session jam at different departments as the students could not leave the dormitories before completion of their studies. Fahmida Rahman said the condition of the female students is miserable compared to male ones as they cannot stay at cottages or messes. She said many guardians are reluctant to admit their daughters to the university simply due to accommodation problems. Fahmida said the students got tired after the long journey and cannot go through their studies regularly. Krishnobrato Bhattacharya, who lives in a mess in the Kusumbag Residential area in the city, said they are to face manifold problems in the messes as the owners are reluctant to rent their houses to bachelors, mainly students. He said there is no congenial atmosphere in the messes for study. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr M Badiul Alam told The Daily Star that they had sent a proposal to the education ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) to construct two more dormitories last year. Terming the university transport-based one, he said they cannot increase the number of trains as the railway tracks need repair when we managed two more trains for the students after discussion with the railway authority last year.
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