Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the foundation stone laying ceremony of several buildings at Bangabazar premises in the capital on Saturday. Photo: Collected
Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, ‘There is only so much space in Jagannath University; Hostels scattered in different places. That’s why everything will be built in one place, a good campus and accommodation for students and teachers with all modern facilities, a campus with modern, beautiful, technology for education.’
Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has assured the commencement of the new campus of Jagannath University (JUB). He also said that Jagannath University is being made a modern university.
The Prime Minister said these things while addressing the foundation stone laying ceremony of the construction of ‘Bangbazar Wholesale Nagar Bipani Bitan’, ‘Bir Muktijoddha Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani Sarani’, ‘Nazrul Sarobar’ and ‘Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy Children’s Park Modernization’ project at Bangbazar premises of the capital on Saturday.
Regarding the new campus of Jagannath University, Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, ‘Jagannath was a school. Primary school, from primary to higher secondary. Then college, now university. So much space, hostels scattered in different places. That’s why everything will be done in one place, a good campus and accommodation for students and teachers with all modern facilities, a campus will be created with modern, beautiful, technology for education.’
He also said, ‘The space has already been given and the design has also been done. We will start that work very soon. We will build a new campus. We are taking measures to ensure that children can study in a healthy environment.
What the vice chancellor said
Meanwhile, after the video of the Prime Minister’s speech went viral on social media, there was a huge response. The university’s teachers and past-present students shared the video and expressed gratitude. Others have expressed frustration over the lack of expected progress in the work for a long time.
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. on the progress of the project. When contacted, Sadeka Halim said on mobile phone, ‘We are very hopeful that the Prime Minister has spoken about the issue. Land was allotted in Keraniganj in 2018 for his free will.
“After I took over, the late Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Md. Imdadul Haque has completed all the processes and passed the tenders, I have only ordered work for them. I have come to know through the monitoring committee and the media that there has been irregularities and corruption. I had a meeting with the engineers. They also admitted that there is negligence in their work. Those working within us, could not respect the Prime Minister’s goodwill in implementing the new campus. They also seem to lack capacity.’
The Vice-Chancellor said, ‘It is impossible to carry out such a big project in the existing structure of Jagannath University. Because we don’t have such skilled or expert engineers. It was mentioned in DPP that manpower will be provided, engineers will be provided, monitoring team will be provided. But due to some reason they are excluded from DPP.
I am appealing to the government, to the Prime Minister, to the Ministry of Education and the UGC – they should revise the DPP and provide skilled manpower, monitoring teams and other useful elements. Then we can move the work forward quickly.’
Incidentally, in September 2016, the government decided to set up a new campus of Jagannath University at Tegharia in Keraniganj in the face of a month-long movement of students demanding a residential hall.
The acquisition of 200 acres of land in West Mouza of Teghria was approved for the implementation of the master plan of building an academic building, administrative building, housing system, student-teacher center, cafeteria, playground, medical center, swimming pool, lake, and a high-quality campus.
The Ministry of Lands gave the final approval for the land on October 3, 2018. On October 9, Ecnec approved the scheme for land acquisition and development to set up the new campus. This project worth 1920 crore 94 lakh 39 thousand taka was supposed to be implemented by October 2020.
The design of the new campus was also shown to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2019. Jagannath University received a check of around Rs 900 crore in July of that year.
Already the work of campus boundary wall and lake has been completed.