Angry students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) have been protesting for almost 1 hour by blocking the Dhaka-Aricha highway for 4-point demands, including canceling the quota system in government jobs announced in 2018 and maintaining the merit-based recruitment circular. It has created a severe traffic jam on the Dhaka-Aricha highway up to Chandra in the north and Aminbazar in the south.
On Wednesday (July 3) around 2:15 pm, a protest march left the foot of the Sangsaptak sculpture in the central library premises of the university and took a position on the Dhaka-Aricha highway adjacent to the main gate (Dairy Gate) of the university.
During this time, the students were asked to "rear the tools of the Bayanno once again; the tools of the 1970s will rise once again; give news to all of Bengal, bury the quota system; I want to abolish the quota system, there is no job without merit; kill the talented or cancel the quota; let it die, let it die, let the quota system die." There is no place for discrimination in Bengal can be seen chanting.
The 4-point demands proposed by the students are - the quota system announced in 2018 should be canceled and the merit-based recruitment circular should be maintained; Subject to the upholding of Circular of 2018, the Commission shall be constituted as soon as possible to eliminate unreasonable and discriminatory quotas in government jobs (in all grades) and only backward and disadvantaged groups may be considered as per the Constitution; Quota facility cannot be used more than once in the recruitment examination of government jobs and in case of non-availability of eligible candidates in the quota, the vacant posts shall be appointed on merit basis; Effective measures should be taken to ensure a corruption-free, impartial and merit-based bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, Dhaka-19 Constituency MP Saiful Islam's car got stuck on the Dhaka-Aricha highway due to heavy traffic. He was later observed to be forced to get down from his private vehicle and walk towards his desired destination.
It should be noted that earlier on Tuesday, the agitators announced to block the Dhaka-Aricha highway for two hours from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Wednesday (July 3) to speed up the movement on the second day of the program.