Quota reforms: Mass march breaks barricade at Shikkha Odhikar Chottor

A huge number of police personnel had taken position with barricades at capital’s Shikkha Odhikar Chottor.

However, the students protesting for justified reforms of quota in all grades in government jobs broke this barricade and entered the road leading towards Zero Point from the side of the secretariat.

The protesters said that they will march toward Bangabhaban and place a memorandum to the president pressing for their demands, as announced beforehand.

This mass march started under the banner of ‘anti-discrimination student movement’ from in front of the Dhaka University library around 12:00 pm today, Sunday. Students began gathering in front of the library with small procession even before 11:00 am. Some larger processions also arrived later.

Aiming for the mass march, a huge number of students started a procession at 12:02 pm. The procession paraded different roads on the Dhaka University campus, Shahbagh and Matsha Bahban before coming face to face with police barricade at Shikkha Odhikar Chottor. Later they moved ahead breaking the barricade.

Apart from Dhaka University, students from various universities and colleges of the capital are participating in the mass march. The protestors announced this programme on Saturday evening.

Alongside observing this programme in Dhaka, students of various educational institutions across the country will march towards the office of the deputy commissioners in their respective districts. They will hand over a memorandum to the President through the deputy commissioners.

Along with the field level activities, class and examination boycott as well as student protest is going on for the sixth consecutive day today, Sunday in various universities and colleges including Dhaka University aiming to realise their demands.

The students demanding reform of the quota system have been at continuous movement since 1 July. The movement started with a four-point demand, including the reinstatement of the circular cancelling quota system in 2018.

However, they have been talking about only one demand since 7 July. The demand is to pass a law in the parliament to abolish unreasonable and discriminatory quotas in all grades of government jobs and bring down the quotas for the backward communities mentioned in the constitution to a minimum. They have proposed to keep a maximum quota of 5 per cent in all grades.