'No scope for talks with VC'

Dhaka, Jul 13 The protesting BUET teachers have ruled out further talks with the embattled Vice-Chancellor a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for continued dialogue to end the standoff.

The BUET Teachers Association General Secretary Professor Ashraful Islam has said there was no way for them to compromise on their demands.

"We have had talks with him for the last two years. It didn't work," he told bdnews24.com.

"There is no chance left for talks with him," he said during the teachers' sit-in programme demanding resignations of Vice-Chancellor Professor SM Nazrul Islam and Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor M Habibur Rahman for the third straight day on Friday.

He, however, said they do not have any problem if any high-level government official wanted to hold talks.

"We have had discussions among us. The announcement of a tougher movement is coming very soon," he added.

Amid uproar of students and mass resignation of teachers, an eight-strong Syndicate delegation of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology met the Prime Minister on Thursday evening at her official residence Ganobhaban.

After the meeting, Vice-Chancellor Prof Nazrul Islam had told bdnews24.com: ""We have informed the Prime Minister of the overall situation…She has asked us to continue talks with the [protesting] teachers."

The teachers and students of BUET accuse the Vice-Chancellor and Pro- Vice Chancellor of corruption and other irregularities.

But the Vice-Chancellor says he will not accede to 'unethical' demands and resign.

The university's teachers' association had abstained from work from Apr 7 to May 5 demanding the resignations.

The Prime Minister then told the teachers that their demands would be met, who in turn had postponed their programme for a month.

However, the teachers resumed their protests and started two-hour work abstention from 11am every day since Jul 7 as their demands remained unmet.

The university was shut on Jul 11, a month in advance for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, as the agitating teachers continued their movement demanding the duo's removal and threatened full abstention from work from Jul 14.

On Wednesday, as many as 24 teachers, including chairmen of 16 departments and deans of five faculties resigned from their administrative posts on the same demand.

The Syndicate sat in an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening and decided to request the government to form a judicial commission to probe allegations against the VC and the Pro VC.

The protesting teachers and students rejected the Syndicate's.

The VC had told bdnews24.com on Wednesday the President appointed him and he will step down only if the President wanted.