Blockade of road for job aspirants in Shahbagh, traffic stopped

Students have blocked the road in Shahbagh of the capital demanding that the minimum age limit for applying for government jobs should be 35.

On Saturday (September 7) at 11 a.m., the rally began in front of the Shahbagh National Museum. Job aspirants from all over the country are participating in it.

Then around 1 pm they blocked the road at Shahbag intersection. Due to this, the traffic on that road was stopped and severe traffic jam was created on the surrounding roads.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Shahbagh Police Station Shahabuddin Shakeel said that around noon today, the agitators were holding a human chain program in front of the National Museum located in Shahbagh to demand that the age limit for entry into government service be increased to 35 years. From there, the agitators suddenly took a position at Shahbagh intersection and blocked the road. Due to the road block, the traffic in Shahbagh area has been stopped for the time being. Police personnel are at the scene and we are working to bring the situation under control.

At this time, the agitators started chanting slogans like 'Age not merit-medha merit', 'no more delay-now give notice', 'break the chain of 35-break it down'.

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, convenor of Nagarik Oikya, spoke in solidarity with the gathering. He said that it would be like a dictionary to talk about the number of irregularities in the recruitment of government jobs in Bangladesh. There is no accounting for the number of temporary appointments, when one can be fired by ear. There is no opportunity to take legal action against these.

He said, the movement we did was not just a movement to overthrow the government. We have said that it is a movement to change the country, a movement to change misrule. The main goal of our movement was to remove discrimination from the country. The interim government is trying to handle everything nicely. I think our country is changing.

The agitating job seekers said that the age limit for applying for jobs in around 162 countries of the world is at least 35 years, some of them are open. The developed countries of the world, including India, have done a lot of research and made the age limit for job application a minimum of 35 years according to international standards. But we only have 30 years. We do not accept this discrimination in new Bangladesh.

Bangladesh /SBT