Authorities, BCL tussle over road construction

The Cox's Bazar Government College unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) has confronted the college authorities over the construction of a road on a disputed land, reports bdnews24.com.
College Principal Prof AKM Fazlul Karim Chowdhury said the Chhatra League activists took out a procession under the banner of general students on Monday and vandalised valuables on the campus.
A mobile court stopped the construction work on Saturday, he said, adding that the project started under government's TR and Kajer Binimoye Khadyo or KaBiKha (Food for Work) programme without informing the college authorities.
Local MP Saimum Sarwar Kamal has described the protests by college authorities as "illogical".
The road under construction stretches up to Link Road Station from the north-east side of the college.
Activists of Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League's student wing, said they did not take part in the vandalism although they support the cause.
Principal Karim said a legal battle was on with a man over the ownership of some land along a boundary wall on the north-east side of the college.
Local Krishak League leader Sheikh Yakub Ali started the construction work last week after receiving the green light from the authorities.
"A mobile court suspended the construction work on a complaint by the college authorities. The Chhatra League activists took out the procession on Monday afternoon protesting the move," said Karim.
"They were agitating at the entrance of the administration building. They vandalised chairs of security guards there."
He said he did not know who had locked the administration building. "I was inside my office during the agitation. I am not sure who locked the gate. Even the on-duty guards did not notice."
He cited fear that the college authorities might lose ownership of the land if the road was constructed.
Zakir Hossain, president of the Chhatra League unit in the college, said: "The agitated students wanted to submit a memorandum to the principal. They broke some chairs when they found the gate locked. Police reached the scene as soon as the students tried breaking in."
He said he and his general secretary Sakhawat Hossain went to the spot after hearing about the chaos but Chhatra League was in no way involved in the incident.