JnU students seek dorms on land of old Dhaka jail

Jagannath University students yesterday demonstrated on the campus boycotting their classes to press home their demands for constructing residential halls at the place of Dhaka's old central jail, already shifted to Keraniganj.

Saying that the on-going militancy issue is making difficult for bachelors and students to rent houses, they demanded that the government fix their housing problem.

Hundreds of students in a procession paraded on the campus from around 9:00am to 12:00 noon.

“We are suffering from severe residential problems. The problem can easily be solved with establishing some residential buildings in that place,” said Mahmudur Hasan, a student.

JnU Registrar Md Ohiduzzaman told The Daily Star that the authorities sent a letter to the home ministry over permanent ownership of the former Dhaka Central Jail's land on March 23, 2014.

“We are yet to get any answer from the ministry,” he said.

In the letter, JnU authorities mentioned that the land of the central jail after shifting the prisoners could be used for building residential halls to solve the housing crisis of the students.

More than 6,000 prisoners of Dhaka Central Jail were shifted to the newly constructed jail in Keraniganj on Friday. 

Although different quarters came up with different proposals including establishing a museum, park for children and open space, any concrete plan on that land is yet to be unveiled by the government.