Official sources said the current DU authorities leaning towards the ruling BNP-Jamaat coalition have appointed some 100 officers and more than 600 lower grade employees in recent years. Allegation goes that almost all of these employees were appointed either on political or parochial consideration.

Besides having affiliation with the ruling parties, the other easier way to bag the class III and class IV jobs is being an applicant from the greater Noakhali, Comilla and Chandpur districts, sources said. Most of the officers and employees appointed in the last few years were from these particular areas.

DU Treasurer Prof Syed Rashidul Hasan on several occasions had questioned the qualifications of these recently appointed officers and employees. He told The Daily Star that most officers at the university are of "worst calibre".

A total of 450 employees have been appointed in the DU in last one year, sources said. About 70 percent of these employees are from a particular region--the greater Comilla and Noakhali regions, informed the DU treasurer.

Prof Hasan said the university gets nothing from these officers and staff, instead it has to spend a handsome amount for them. "Many of them do not even know how to handle files and sometimes I wonder how the university will run with such substandard people," the treasurer observed.

A DU selection committee headed by Pro-Vice Chancellor (Pro-VC) Prof AFM Yusuf Haider has recently appointed three officers at the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) and DU Printing Press, and two of those recruits have third classes in their academic career.

Although there were a number of more qualified candidates with relevant work experience, the authorities appointed Shushnito Jaman--who has a third class in B Com--as assistant director to the TSC. Sources said he could manage the job only because he is a relative of a former BNP-blessed DU VC.

Another recruit to the same position Nazir Ahmed Shimab has only one first division (in HSC) in his entire academic career and does not have any work experience.

Abdullah Sardar, Humayun Kabir, Faruk Hossain Khan, KM Khurshid Alam and Asaduzzaman Chowdhury were among those who did not get the jobs despite having both good academic qualification and work experience.

Besides, the DU authorities have appointed SM Bipas Anwar, son of Bangla department Chairman Prof SM Lutfor Rahman, as the deputy manager at the DU press. Anwar, also president of the DU Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha, a cultural wing of BNP, got the job although there were candidates with far better educational qualifications and work experience.

The committee has also appointed 27 fourth class employees at the Central Library allegedly on the basis of their political affiliations. Sources said some high level officials of DU administration and leaders of the BNP's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) have shared the posts between them.

Two of these employees told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity that they had to pay a bribe of Tk 40,000 to some DU officials for their appointment. Some JCD leaders also took the same amount from the other "successful" candidates.

Meanwhile, a number of JCD leaders have turned into officers at the DU. Many of them do not care about their seniors, hampering the administrative work, official sources alleged. In case of promotion, the scene is even grimmer for the general staff as their colleagues loyal to the ruling parties always have an edge over them.

During the last Awami League regime too, some 200 employees and 50 officers had been appointed at the DU on political considerations, sources added.

Pro-VC Prof Haider, however, claimed that they had been appointed as per merit and work experience. "We do not look for who is relative of whom at the meeting of the selection committee," he added.