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The protesters say jobs should be given out based on merit
Published : 03 Jul 2024, 05:36 PM
Thousands of students and job seekers have blocked the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka for one and a half hours for a second day to demand the reinstatement of the 2018 notification scrapping the quota system for public sector jobs.
The protesters marched to one of the capital’s busiest intersections from the Dhaka University Central Library around 2:30pm on Wednesday.
The march passed through the university’s Freedom and Democracy Arch, the VC Square, in front of the Raju Sculpture, through Doel Chattar, in front of the High Court, and past the Fisheries Building before arriving in Shahbagh around 3:45pm.
They left the place at 5:15pm and marched towards Dhaka University before ending their protests for the day.
The demonstrators said they would resume the protests outside the library at 11am on Thursday.
The blockade caused severe traffic jams on the roads around Shahbagh and led to suffering for passengers.
Nahid Islam, coordinator of the ‘Anti-discrimination Student Movement’, said: "Thousands of students have taken to the streets today. It is not just a movement of students and job seekers, it is a state matter.”
“We want recruitment based on merit. The 2018 circular should be reinstated immediately. Otherwise, we will not leave the roads.”
Soon after independence, even before the Constitution was finalised, a 30 percent quota for freedom fighters was introduced in government offices, autonomous or semi-autonomous institutions and various corporations. After the adoption of the Constitution, Article 150 legitimised the quota. The government later brought the children of freedom fighters under the quota facility as well.
On Oct 4, 2018, in the face of a student movement, the government issued a circular cancelling the 10 percent quota for women, the 30 percent quota for freedom fighters and the 10 percent quota for certain districts in government jobs.
According to the circular issued by the Ministry of Public Administration, the existing quota system for direct recruitment to the posts of ninth grade (previously first class) and 10th to 13th grade (previously second class) was scrapped in favour of a merit-based system.
However, the circular stated that though the quota system for first and second-class jobs was abolished, the quotas will remain in place for third and fourth-class posts.
Seven people, including Wahidul Islam – the son of a freedom fighter – filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2021 challenging the validity of that circular.
After the final hearing, the High Court bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat declared the decision to scrap the quota system illegal. The state applied to the Appellate Division to suspend the decision.
Students protested at Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University and other places across the country over the High Court’s decision.
The Shahbagh intersection had been blocked by a similar protest on Tuesday.
Protest leader Nahid said they had been protesting since the High Court delivered its verdict on Jun 5.
The protesters had given an ultimatum but the government did not take any step to meet their demands, he said. “Consequently, we’ve taken to the streets again.”
He said they hope the Appellate Division would give a verdict in their favour after the hearing scheduled for Thursday.
“We’ll continue protests until the first of our four demands are met,” he said.
Sharjis Islam, another protest leader, said their four demands were:
- reinstatement of the 2018 circular stipulating merit-based recruitment for first and second class government jobs.
- formation of a commission to determine a logical size of the quota for left behind groups.
- limiting the opportunity to use quota by eligible people once in a lifetime.
- merit-based recruitment to fill up the vacant posts of officials appointed from quotas.
