Police lathicharge and sound grenades against teachers’ demands in Shahbagh, bus workers blockade in Mohakhali

POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Feb 10, 2025 : Police lathicharged primary teachers registered with the Teachers Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA) who had taken up a position at the Shahbagh intersection in the capital, and later lobbed sound grenades and water cannons at around 1:45 pm. The protesters dispersed.
Earlier, they blocked the road at around 1:20 pm on Monday. This has stopped all types of traffic moving through Shahbagh.
GM Yasin, convener of the NTRCA Registered Teachers’ Council, said that NTRCA has recommended 17 recruitment exams so far, but has appointed only five through public notifications. About 12-13 thousand qualified teachers have been discriminated against in this. Many registered teachers have not received job recommendations despite passing the exams multiple times. However, some people have been appointed without applying.
Primary school aspirants say that the verdict that has been given to cancel our appointment is discriminatory. This government itself recommended our appointment. Again, our appointment has been cancelled. This is a betrayal of us. We want this verdict to be cancelled quickly and our appointment finalized.
Earlier, on February 7, primary school students whose appointments were cancelled gathered in front of the National Press Club. Later, they took out a procession and stood in front of the residence of the chief advisor and started shouting slogans. Then they had a verbal altercation with the police. Later, the police used lathicharge and water cannon to disperse them.
Last Thursday (February 6), the High Court ruled to cancel the government’s decision to issue appointment letters to 6,531 candidates who had passed the post of assistant teachers of government primary schools in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions.
Earlier, on November 19, the High Court had suspended the decision to issue appointment letters to 6,531 candidates for the post of assistant teachers of government primary schools in the third phase. The court gave this order because the appointments were made following the quota system.
On October 31, the final results of the third phase of the assistant teacher recruitment for government primary schools in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions (excluding the three hill districts) were published. 6,531 people passed. The results were published on the website of the Directorate of Primary Education.
On May 28, the High Court had suspended the recruitment process for the assistant teacher recruitment for government primary schools in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions (excluding the three hill districts) for six months, including the oral examination. The Appellate Division then dismissed the stay order issued by the High Court regarding the oral examination. In this context, the Directorate of Primary Education conducted the oral examination. However, the court ordered an investigation into the allegations made in the media about the question paper leak in the written examination for this recruitment.
On the other hand, bus workers have blocked roads in the capital with several demands, including the withdrawal of the decision to pick up and drop off passengers only from the counter. They started protesting by blocking the road at the Janpader More area in the capital’s Sayedabad after 12 noon on Monday. This has caused severe traffic congestion on the Sayedabad-Jatrabari road.
Eyewitnesses said that bus workers started gathering at the intersection of the township in the Sayedabad area from 10:30 am. After gathering about a hundred workers, they blocked the road and started protesting. This stopped the movement of vehicles on the Sayedabad-Jatrabari road.
Earlier, the e-ticketing system and counter-based bus service were introduced in Dhaka metropolis from February 6. Under the new system, 2,610 buses of 21 companies were initially launched on various routes on the Gazipur-Dhaka road. The color of all the vehicles was determined to be pink.
This service was first introduced in Azampur in Uttara of the capital. The inaugural ceremony was organized by the Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association. The ceremony was inaugurated by Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Sheikh Md. Sajjat ​​Ali.
He highlighted the traffic system of the capital and said, Dhaka’s traffic system is so fragile, so chaotic; it is no longer worthy of presentation. One bus pushes another bus like a cow and a buffalo. Facebook, we are ridiculed a lot here and there. We have to come out of this.
It was informed at the event that initially, buses will be operated in four parts of the routes through which buses enter Dhaka. Among them, buses coming from Gazipur-Abdullahpur, buses entering Dhaka via Manikganj-Dhamrai-Savar; buses coming from Bachila-Mohammadpur and buses leaving from Mirpur will be brought to the counter system within a month. This program will be started with buses in the Abdullahpur section. For this, one hundred buses have been painted pink. E-ticketing system has been installed in these buses.