The New Nation - Internet Edition

Najmul Alam Nobin

"After the reopening of the halls after about two months, it took long five hours for me to clean my dusty room but still the smell of dust does not disappear," Suman a resident of Surya Sen Hall said this yesterday while describing his experience on the campus.

The students of different halls of the Dhaka University were seen cleaning their rooms to make the rooms livable after the halls were vacated by the government following a three-day violence on the campus in August.

The rooms of the students of different dorms were dusty and hard to clean, as those rooms got very much smelly. Some of the students said they were attacked by respiratory illness as they spent a lot of time cleaning their rooms in dusty environment.

Only a few students had returned to the halls on the second day of the reopening of the halls. Provost of Surya Sen Hall Prof Dr Sirajul Islam hoped the students would start returning to the halls in big number in the next week, when academic activities of the university resumes.

He said those students who were engaged in part time jobs or tuitions entered the halls, as they needed an accommodation the most.

Meanwhile, students of different halls were seen drying their bed sheets, pillows and mattresses in the sun. Despite assurance of the university authorities to provide hall students with standard food the quality of the food provided was lower than before.

Riadul Karim, a student of Kabi Jashim Uddin halls said, "We were robbed of our sub human life here for over two months. We are happy to be back. "

"I stayed in Dhaka, as I have a part time job essential for my expenses, but in the past two months I moved from place to place to put up for the night, besides, the break in study is a big loss, we the general students do not want any further disruption of our academic life," Riad said expressing anxiety over what to come.

The students had to leave their halls in a very short notice and could not take their valuable items like personal computers with them. Allegation of thefts of computers from the rooms of different halls were reported.

Students hoped that one of the main problems of the resident DU students, the bed bugs, would be gone within these two months, but the bugs did not disappear and as before it caused many students to pass sleepless nights.

Anu a resident of Kabi Jashim Uddin hall said, "We hoped that the bed bugs would not be there after they had nothing to eat for over two months as no one was there in the room. But the begs attacked us with full force as we returned to our beds."