UGC urges unis to avoid unplanned dev projects threatening environment

The country's higher education institutions, including the universities, should not undertake any development project that harms the environment during implementation, UGC Chairman (additional charge) Prof Muhammad Alamgir has said.

"If the development works are carried out by damaging the environment, it will not be sustainable," he added.

The UGC chairman was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural event of a workshop on providing Valid Data input in the database related to monitoring and evaluation of university projects on Sunday.

The event took place at the commission's Planning and Development Division seminar room.

Prof Muhammad Alamgir also asked the university authorities to take up development projects considering the need, and properly follow the government regulations in implementing the ongoing projects.

"Residential buildings are lying empty in many universities due to construction of buildings for teachers, officers and employees without analysing the need. Rather, if the residential hall is constructed, it could solve the housing crisis of the students," he said.

He further advised the stakeholders to be very careful in making specifications of projects in universities, mentioning that implementation of unplanned development projects is just a waste of people's hard-earned money.

The UGC chairman also asked the university authorities to refrain from sending infrastructure construction proposals without completion of the feasibility study and land acquisition, if the project cost is more than Tk50 crore.

Addressing as special guest, UGC Member Prof Md Sazzad Hossain, said, "The universities of the country should take the lead in building a smart Bangladesh. Everyone involved in providing services at universities should be proficient in using technology."

Ferdous Zaman, secretary of the commission, as special guest, called upon everyone to work tirelessly to develop the country's universities as areas of research and innovation to implement the plan of transforming Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041.

Representatives from the commission and various public universities took part in the event.