4 CU students sit-in at Ctg rail station to protest railway mismanagement

Four Chittagong University students did a sit-in at Chittagong Railway Station to protest Bangladesh Railway mismanagement, in solidarity with Mohiuddin Roni, a fourth-year student of Dhaka University, who started a sit-in at Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka with a six-point demand.

The four students – Mahbub Hasan, Mohammad Masud, Mohammad Mahin Rubel and Kazi Ashikur Rahman – were at Chittagong Railway Station from 10am to 5pm on Sunday with their six-point demand demanding a stop to the harassment of passengers.

Mahbub Hasan told The Business Standard (TBS) that Roni is not the only victim of Bangladesh Railway corruption. Almost all passengers have experienced similar harassment.

"We will continue with our sit-in until the railway authorities meet our demands. Today, we stayed till 5pm, but we will be here 24 hours round the clock from tomorrow," said Mahbub.

The six-point demand includes immediately stopping passenger harassment by shohoz.com when purchasing tickets and taking action to investigate incidents of harassment; taking appropriate measures to prevent black marketing of tickets; stopping online ticket quotas to ensure equal opportunities for all in purchasing tickets online-offline; undertaking long-term plans for railway infrastructure development, including increasing the number of trains to keep pace with passenger demand; improving the quality of railway services by developing a robust information system and continuously monitoring the activities of train ticket examiners, supervisors and other responsible persons; ensuring the sale of food on trains at fair prices, free supply of clean water, and hygienic sanitation.

Last month, after Mohiuddin Roni was harassed when buying a train ticket, he started a sit-in and a public mass signature campaign in front of the ticket counter of Kamalapur Railway Station on 7 July. He was there even on Eid day. 

On 9 July, policemen barred his sit-in programme. Since then, he has stopped his signature campaign but started a 24-hour sit-in programme. Two Chittagong University students, Mohammad Mahin Rubel and Kazi Ashikur Rahman, and Dhaka University student Jaya Mondal joined his protest programme on 11 July in solidarity with him.