Bangladesh Islami Chhatrashibir has mentioned that the High Court’s verdict regarding the restoration of 30% quota system in first and second class government jobs is a farce with meritorious students.
Central President Manjurul Islam and Secretary General Zahidul Islam said in a joint statement, “General students of the country have been protesting continuously at different times to demand reform of the discriminatory quota system introduced since 1972. The unprecedented participation of general students from January 2018 took this movement to a final stage. As a result, the government was forced to cancel the quota system in government offices, autonomous or semi-autonomous institutions and in the case of direct recruitment (9th to 13th grade) by the High
Court After the final hearing of the writ, the High Court bench consisting of Justice KM Kamrul Quader and Justice Khizir Hayat gave this verdict yesterday.
The statement said, “Articles 19 (1), 29 (1) and 29 (2) of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, in the case of employment of all citizens. Equal opportunities have been mentioned. Through the long bloody liberation war, we got independent Bangladesh in exchange for the blood of millions of martyrs. Those who rose above all interests and participated in this great war of liberation, the nation will remember them with lifelong respect. The main spirit of our freedom was to establish a society without equality, justice and discrimination.
But even after 53 years of independence, we feel that the 30 percent quota system in jobs for the descendants of freedom fighters is against the basic spirit of independence. The freedom fighters did not participate in the war for any gain. They fought for their lives with the determination to establish a non-discrimination state. Therefore, we believe that freedom fighters themselves do not want such discriminatory practices.”
The statement further said, “The nation has reached a critical juncture today with state-sponsored misrule, rampant corruption, money laundering and looting. Educated youth is disorientated today due to unemployment. According to the latest Labor Force Survey (2022) of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the number of educated unemployed youth in the country is increasing. The unemployment rate among the highly educated is 12%. In number which is like eight lakhs. In various national newspapers, one often hears about the trade of bribes and lobbying worth lakhs of rupees to get third and fourth class jobs. There, first and second class jobs were the hope of educated youth in getting jobs based on merit. In such a context, the decision to restore the quota in 1st and 2nd class jobs is tantamount to killing the dream of common students. It is nothing but farce with them.”
The leaders said, “We are noticing that the country’s economy is in crisis today due to unlimited corruption and looting. Another issue is being created by reinstating the quota system to hide the eyes of the people of the country from this poor state of the economy. However, the conscious student society of Bangladesh has already rejected this decision. Chhatra Shibir has always been, still is and always will be with the legitimate moral demands of students. The High Court should consider this position of common students immediately. We are drawing the attention of the concerned authorities in this regard.
Otherwise, the Islami Chhatra Shibir will be forced to take the student community with them and go for a tough movement again to meet the just demands of the common students.