VAT protests by private varsity students block streets in Dhaka

Students of private universities have taken to the streets again on Sunday on the second day of their three-day strike protesting the VAT imposed on tuition fees.

Roads at Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, Mohkhali, Banani, Rampura, Uttara and Abdullahpur have been blocked by protestors, crippling traffic on the first working day of the week.

 

Students have been protesting since the 2015-16 fiscal’s budget imposed a 7.5 percent value added tax (VAT) on tuition fees of universities, medical and engineering colleges in private sector.

 

Agitations in Dhaka on Sunday seems to thrown the city's traffic out of gear—much like on Thursday.

 

Movement of vehicles on major streets have already been severely disrupted.

 

East West University (EWU) students came out from their campus at Rampura around 10am and blocked the street between the Rampura Bridge and Merul Badda disrupting traffic.

 

A bdnews24.com correspondent reported from the spot that students have put up barricades on the road with bamboo poles.

Police said their request to move out from the street gone in vain.

“We had requested students not to block the street and cause public suffering, but they did not listen,” said Sub Inspector Mehedi Maqsud, who is deployed in the area.

Demonstrators, however, said that they would allow school-goers and ambulances to pass through.

“We have blocked the road, but school-goers, senior citizens, ambulances and media vehicles will be allowed to go through,” said protesting EWU student Mohammad Raihan.  

Students of Southeast University took out a procession in Banani around the same time.  An hour later, a barricade with buses were put on the Airport Road, stopping traffic.

Traffic movement stopped between Mohakhali and Gulshan after 11am as students of BRAC University are agitating at the Gulshan 1 intersection.

Demonstrations in Uttara and Abdullahpur at the city’s northern end have stopped traffic on the road which connects the highways to Gazipur, Tangail and Mymensingh.

Students of IUBAT, Uttara University and BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT) are taking part in the processions there.

 

“Students have blocked the House Building intersection in Uttara, disrupting traffic,”  Deputy Commissioner (traffic) Probir Kumar Roy told bdnews24.com.

 

Reports that police have detained some of the protestors in Uttara have not been confirmed by the law enforcers.

 

Meanwhile, demonstrations in Dhanmondi have also crippled traffic.

 

Vehicle movement on the Satmosjid Road in Dhanmondi has been suspended as students of ULAB, Stamford University have blocked the street in front of their campuses.

Meanwhile, students of several other universities have blocked the Mirpur Road end of Road 27 in Dhanmondi, stopping traffic on one of the busiest roads in Dhaka.

There are campuses of at least 12 private universities in the Dhanmondi area alone. Students of several priavte medical colleges, including Bangladesh Medical College, Northeren Medical College and Popular Medical College were found in the demonstrations of Sunday.

Police is diverting vehicles on the Satmosjid Road through Russell Square and Panthapath.

 

Traffic police Assistant Commissioner (North) Abu Yousuf said that they were diverting vehicles from Badda, Gulshan 1 and Rampura through Hatirjheel.