Cattle graze on the playground of Chittagong University, top, and under construction gymnasium building, inset. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Forty-four years into its journey, Chittagong University (CU) could neither establish a sports complex nor a full-fledged gymnasium while its playground has turned into a grazing field for local livestock.
If initiatives are taken the huge playground on the northern part of the campus could be easily made a stadium along with a sports complex and gymnasium. Due to lack of such facilities, students are lagging behind in the inter-university competitions, sources said.
Consequently Department of Physical Education has been running with lack of infrastructural facilities.
The government granted Tk 1.25 crore for establishing a sports complex, including a swimming pool in 1976, during the tenure of the then vice-chancellor Prof Abdul Karim. Of the fund, only Tk 30 lakh was spent to construct the gymnasium and a boundary wall under the proposed sports complex. The wall collapsed within few months of its construction as it was built without any support, physical education department sources said.
The under-construction gymnasium is now lying in ramshackle condition.
But with the same allocation from the government, Dhaka University (DU) authority set up a sports complex, including a swimming pool and Rajshahi University (RU) a full-fledged stadium.
Prof Abdul Karim and former chief engineer Afiz Uddin of the university were arrested on charge of corruption during the H M Ershad period in this regard, sources said.
Department of Physical Education is conducting its activities without any sports complex as well as gymnasium.
Thirty students get admitted to the university under sports quota every year. Around 600 students regularly practise under various disciplines of sports like football, cricket, hockey, handball, volleyball, basketball, water polo, tennis, badminton, swimming and gymnastics, sources said.
For want of a sports complex as well as a gymnasium, students of the university are being deprived of the facilities of extra-curricular activities.
The students are also facing serious problems in practising indoor games due to lack of a gymnasium mainly in the rainy season, said A M M Raquib Quoraishi, director of Physical Education Department.
We have around 45 swimmers who fully depend on the pond for practising, said Quoraishi, adding that they need a swimming pool to remove the difficulties.
He said they cannot accommodate the players as well as the spectators from other universities during the inter-university sports competition as there is no pavilion in the central field.
A sports complex with swimming pool and gymnasium is a must to encourage the students to participate in sports side by side with their academic studies, Quoraishi said.
Md Alamgir Chowdhury, chief engineer of the university, said it is sad that there is no sports complex or a full-fledged gymnasium on the campus. He hopes to start construction work of a gymnasium in September-October this year.
The construction cost of the gymnasium will be Tk 6 crore, he added.