Engineering Rights Movement announces new programmes, ‘Complete shutdown’ to continue

Engineers Rights Movement, a platform of the protesting engineering students, said their ongoing 'complete shutdown' at all public and private universities will continue until further announcement.

Platform president Md Wali Ullah made the announcement at a press conference at the Institute of Engineers, Dhaka (IEB) on Thursday afternoon. At the briefing, they also provided a detailed account of the ongoing movement and their demands.

During the conference, a video presentation highlighted the disparities between diploma and BSc engineering degree holders. It was pointed out that in many cases, government job positions are reserved solely for diploma holders, leaving BSc engineers without opportunities. This practice needs to be stopped.

Wali Ullah said, “Our movement has been going on seeking realisation of three demands, and the massive incident that occurred yesterday, Wednesday needs to be addressed. Although we were given a commitment yesterday, we have seen no implementation today. Therefore, our programme will continue: until the next announcement, complete shutdown will remain in place on campuses across the country.”

The protesters also announced departmental conferences this week and a national conference in the following week. They said such programmes were planned to avoid public inconvenience. They, however, would hold a procession today.

The engineering students’ demands are as follows: recruitment to the 9th-grade assistant engineer position should be done only through examination and with a minimum qualification of BSc engineering; in the 10th-grade position, where only diploma holders are allowed to apply, higher degree holders should also be eligible; and only those who complete a BSc engineering degree should have the right to write ‘engineer’ after their name.

BUET students held sit-in programmes at Shahbagh on Tuesday and Wednesday to press home these three demands. Yesterday, Wednesday, students blocked Shahbagh intersection around 11:00 am as part of a pre-announced programme.

At one stage around 1:00pm, they tried to move toward the chief adviser’s residence at Jamuna. Police stopped them near the Intercontinental Hotel, using sound grenades, tear gas shells, and water cannons, also charged-baton on the protesters, injuring many students.

After the police charged batons, students blocked Shahbagh intersection from 5:30 pm until 10:30 pm. Last night, they announced the complete shutdown of engineers at all engineering universities across the country.