Unending campus violence
The environments in the campus of the major public universities of the country have turned into hell for peace-loving students and heaven for peace-breakers. We, no doubt, know that “education is the backbone of a nation.” From this perspective, we can say-“educational institutes are the body of the nation and the students are the heads of the nation.”
Generally, if the body lacks security or is threatened by someone to be assaulted then the backbone may be at risk. So if our universities are not safe enough for the students, the educational purpose there will not be served properly. Sometimes the entire nation may lose forever its some heads having the potential of leading the nation in future. A couple of days back, two students were murdered. Owing to temptation of power and political enmity such murders are underway in the campus. On the contrary, lack of proper investigation and strict enforcement of laws, negligence of law enforcing agency are mainly responsible for rampant murder occurrences on the campus. Students who commit murder on the campus seem to be beyond any law. Even some students use illegal deadly arms and cause violence on the campus while the law-enforcing agency almost plays a silent role.
In every hall of the public universities, students are often forced to join political programs. Though the Penal Code, 1860 under section 153B prescribes punishment for inducing students to take part in political activity, it has no use in reality.
The university administration can play a vital role by adopting some strict measures so that no further murder or violence can occur and no culprit can escape the punishment prescribed by law. The political unions have the most effective role to play in this respect.
Faysal Saleh Al Mahdi
Dhaka
Funding community radios
In Bangladesh, 14 community radios are operating in different parts of the country to help rural people uplift their socio-economic condition by increasing their access to information and encouraging community action. Currently these radio stations are running as non-profit media. They have only a limited scope for earning revenues to meet their operational costs. It may be mentioned here that the Indian government has allocated 100 crore rupees for the development of the country’s community radio sector. At present, 161 community radios are on air in India.
Community radios are functioning in almost all the countries of the world. So, it is strongly felt that the government should allocate sufficient fund for community radio for its development and better management.
Prof M Zahidul Haque
SAU, Dhaka
