The academic activities of 2006-07 session have begun over two months ago, but many students still cannot manage to have a seat in their respective dormitories, which are crammed with students of previous sessions.

Students coming from outside the capital are bearing the brunt of the accommodation crisis.

"When I asked the hall authorities for a place in the hall, they said that freshers are not allowed to stay in the hall. But where I will live now as I've no place to live in the capital," said a student who came from Khulna and is attached to Ziaur Rahman hall. At present, he is living in the house of one of his relatives.

Taslima Akter from Jhenidah, who has been attached to Rokeya Hall, has tried for the last two months to get or share a room at the hall. She has applied to the hall authorities and also sought the help of senior residents, but to no avail.

"Now I wonder how long I would be able to stay in the house of my distant relative," she said.

In previous years, student leaders used to provide accommodation for freshers by cramming them into a number of rooms known as 'Gono rooms' in every dormitory, where they live in an unhygienic condition.

Mainly the student organisations of the ruling parties managed accommodation for the freshers so that they can be used in the political activities on the campus.

But this year, with the change in political scenario, the freshers have failed to get such facilities.

Although the rules and regulations of the university do not allow too many students to live in a room, the student organisations made it a common practice for many years to cram freshers into a room while the hall authorities remained indifferent to it.

The university administration is now trying to comply with the rules that bar freshers from cramming into the rooms in dormitories.

The university authorities said they are now struggling to accommodate senior students in the dormitories.

"We are sympathetic to the problems of freshers, but we don't want our students to cram into rooms in an unhygienic condition. We also can't do anything to address their problems at the moment," a provost of a dormitory said, preferring anonymity.

Former vice-chancellor Prof AK Azad Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the university administration as well as the government should look into this issue, as the government is trying to bring changes to the rules of appointment of VCs and other related issues.

Meanwhile, a number of teachers and students blamed the university administration for remaining indifferent to the acute crisis prevailing for years.

They also said the authorities did not construct a single dormitory during the tenure of the previous four-party alliance government, worsening the crisis.

About 20,000 students, out of more than 32,000 students, are staying at 16 residential dormitories, sources said. And hundreds of them are living in 'Gono rooms' in inhuman condition in almost every dormitory.

The accommodation crisis in four female halls is worse than in the male halls.

Prof Azad said the number of students is increasing every year, but the university administration did not take any steps to address the accommodation crisis.

Bangabandhu Hall and Ziaur Rahman Hall were built in 1985 and two more dormitories in 1997, he said. But no dormitory was built in the last 10 years, whereas at least four dormitories should have been built by this time, he added.

DU VC Prof SMA Faiz said the university authorities could not construct new halls due to lack of space. The authorities, however, are going to build a female hall near the Curzon Hall to ease the accommodation crisis, he added.