Quake hit DU halls
Friday, 1 August 2008
NEARLY 18 years ago I left the Muhsin hall of the Dhaka University (DU) as a resident student. Today after such a long time, I am shocked to see the very dilapidated condition of the famous Muhsin Hall. During a recent mild tremor, the Dhaka University authorities had to relocate about 600 residential students to TV rooms, gymnasium and other buildings.
While publishing the news, the newspapers including the Financial Express published photographs of the vulnerable Muhsin Hall and some other buildings of the Dhaka University. In fact, some of the buildings in the campus have long been showing structural problems. We still remember the 1985 tragedy of Jagannath Hall of the Dhaka University. Thirty-nine resident students and employees of this hall were killed when a section of its roof caved in, on October 15, 1985. The Muhsin Hall building, held up by temporary support pillars, reminds us of the Jagannath Hall tragedy.
Time and again, newspaper reports have revealed the bad state of conditions of some of the old buildings in the University but the authorities have turned a blind eye to these reports. The DU is the largest educational institution of the country where thousands of students stay in the halls. The relocation of the students to the TV room and other areas is a sensible move. But time is money. The government and the university authorities should together task a specialist team to restore some of these buildings, instead of any stop-gap modifications that are being done erratically, to ward off an eminent disaster. This is urgent. Students of the country's top public university should not spend their nights in fear. Even a mild earthquake can cause their residential hall to crumble.
If fund at this moment is a constraint, the DU authorities can make an appeal to its old students to come up. Many of the university's alumni have achieved great success who can help raise the required funds.
Noor Ahmed
Dhanmandi R/A
Dhaka
While publishing the news, the newspapers including the Financial Express published photographs of the vulnerable Muhsin Hall and some other buildings of the Dhaka University. In fact, some of the buildings in the campus have long been showing structural problems. We still remember the 1985 tragedy of Jagannath Hall of the Dhaka University. Thirty-nine resident students and employees of this hall were killed when a section of its roof caved in, on October 15, 1985. The Muhsin Hall building, held up by temporary support pillars, reminds us of the Jagannath Hall tragedy.
Time and again, newspaper reports have revealed the bad state of conditions of some of the old buildings in the University but the authorities have turned a blind eye to these reports. The DU is the largest educational institution of the country where thousands of students stay in the halls. The relocation of the students to the TV room and other areas is a sensible move. But time is money. The government and the university authorities should together task a specialist team to restore some of these buildings, instead of any stop-gap modifications that are being done erratically, to ward off an eminent disaster. This is urgent. Students of the country's top public university should not spend their nights in fear. Even a mild earthquake can cause their residential hall to crumble.
If fund at this moment is a constraint, the DU authorities can make an appeal to its old students to come up. Many of the university's alumni have achieved great success who can help raise the required funds.
Noor Ahmed
Dhanmandi R/A
Dhaka