The charges levelled against 14 local students of the Nightingale Medical College (NMC) at Ashulia are serious, to say the least. These 14 muscle-flexing students studying at various levels of the medical graduation course demanded Tk 300 from their foreign classmates each every month. Naturally foreign students refused to pay, drawing the 14-some group's ire. They assaulted a Nepalese student and when others like him protested, all the foreign students were ousted from the campus. Even female students were subjected to verbal abuses.
A private medical college with very low status, the Nightingale Medical College (NMC) suffered, along with two other medical colleges, the indignity of getting declared unfit for running medical studies and had its approval cancelled. The academic activities of the three medical colleges were instructed to suspend by none other than the health minister at one point. All three were found to be non-compliant of regulations obligatory for running such educational institutions. Absence of laboratories and lack of required hospital facilities further disqualified those three from continuing academic courses. Also there were allegations of irregularities such as withdrawal of the initial deposit of Tk 10 million without informing the ministry of health. The health minister had kept open the option for the students of those three medical colleges to be accommodated in other private medical colleges located nearer. Â
In one deplorable incident of nightly police raid, law enforcers once opened fired on the students of the NMC when they confined the director of the NMC, leaving 30 injured. At that time the students of the college faced an uncertain future and protested against various irregularities by the director. If the government stuck to its decision of closing the three blacklisted medical colleges, the NMC would have no existence by now. How the college authorities have managed to continue operation of the college and its hospital -if the latter has been functional at all, is not known. But it is evident that the sponsors could make it happen.
Be that what it may, the fact is some local students of the medical college have decided to complete the circle of infamy for the already infamous college. Even a two-member team led by a deputy secretary visited the NMC because the respective foreign missions on information from the ousted students of their countries started inquiring about the incident. Unsurprisingly, no teacher or official of the college administration was present at the time of their visit. The college authorities cannot shirk their responsibility in the disgraceful incident. They have become a party to the matter by default. It was the college authorities' responsibility to get immediately into the act of protecting the foreign students and mete out punishment to the culprits.
Now a case has been instituted against the thugs in disguise of students and two of them have been arrested. However the college authorities can claim no credit for it. It is the result of the foreign missions' initiatives that led to such legal move. What a shame! Students coming to study here are receiving such awful treatment at the hands of their classmates of local origin. Not only has the medical college tarnished its own image but it has also made the country stand accused before the eyes of foreigners. This is unpardonable. Let them suffer the most stringent of punishments in the law book so much so that no devil ever dare try similar acts in the future.
When a medical college earns infamy
Neil Ray | Published: October 03, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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