Polytechnic students postpone rail blockade; talks with education ministry likely
The protesting students of polytechnic institutes have postponed their today's rail blockade programme as a meeting with representatives of education ministry is expected to be held to discuss their demands.
At least two protesting students confirmed the development this morning.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Zubayer Patoyari, central representative of Technical Student Movement, said, "A meeting with the education ministry is likely to take place at 11:00am. The blockade programme has been postponed until then and the next course of action will be determined based on the outcomes of the meeting."
In a statement posted on the Facebook page named "Polytechnic Notice", they said, "Following the intervention of the chief adviser and an invitation from the education adviser, representatives of the 'Technical Student Movement, Bangladesh' have agreed to join a meeting today. As per decisions taken by all polytechnic institutes, the ongoing railway blockade will be relaxed during the meeting."
"The next course of action for polytechnic institutes across the country will be announced based on the outcomes of the discussion," the statement added.
The time of the meeting is yet to be fixed, the protesters said.
Protesting students had announced a rail blockade across the country for today to press home their six-point demand.
An organiser of the protest announced the fresh programme yesterday evening at Satrasta in Dhaka's Tejgaon area.
Yesterday morning, more than 1,000 students blocked the road in Tejgaon, halting traffic movement to press for their demands. The protest continued till evening, causing significant suffering to the public.
Students also blocked roads in different parts of the country.
Their six-point demand includes the transfer of "controversial craft instructors" recruited after 2021, ensuring four years of education in the diploma engineering course, and making each semester a full term of six months.
They further demanded that no one other than diploma engineers be allowed to apply for the post of deputy assistant engineer (10th grade), and that the post of deputy assistant engineer and other equivalent positions be reserved exclusively for diploma engineers.
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