Shawdesh Desk:

Several hundred post graduate students of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University staged demonstration on the campus in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday to press home their three-point demand including payment of arrears and allowance hike.

Demonstrators said that they were not given nine months’ allowances in the outgoing fiscal year.

According to the rules, post graduate students, mostly practicing doctors, are entitled to get Tk 20,000 as allowances for their service to the hospitals during their post graduate education.

The students are demanding Tk 50,000 as monthly allowance for their services to the medical university hospital.

Witnesses said that the agitated doctors, suspending their duty at the hospital, gathered in front of BSMMU Block C building at about 11:00am and chanted slogans supporting their demands.

They, at about 12:00 noon, began besieging the BSMMU vice-chancellor’s office while the VC Md Sharfuddin was present there.

During their demonstration, a group of doctors and staff of the medical university took position for the VC.

To contain the tension, VC Sharfuddin held a dialogue with the demonstrating students’ 10-member delegate and asked them to join their duties and assured them that he would discuss the matter with the minister and even with the prime minister.

After the meeting at about 4:00pm, Sharfuddin told reporters that he would take action if the students continue the demonstration suspending their academic and hospital activities.

‘If any student remains absent for three days, we can drop him or her from the course,’ he said.

The demonstrators ended their besieging programme after the meeting and said that they would not stage demonstration on Wednesday.

They warned that they would resume their demonstration on Thursday if their demands were not meet.

There are over 7,000 post-graduate students attached with over 30 institutions under the BSMMU in three categories—resident, non-resident and FCPS students.

During post graduate courses like diploma, MPhil, MMed and MPH, students are given allowances for their services.