The Jahangirnagar University (JU) administration held a tree-planting programme before the start of the university's 41st senate session. BNP-leaning senate members, however, boycotted it, calling it "for show".

The session began at 4pm on Saturday (29 June) in the senate hall of the university's old administrative building. The tree-planting programme was held at 3.30pm.

On the boycott, senate member and environmental science professor Md Jamal Uddin said both planting and cutting trees should be well thought out. "What students and teachers all wanted was a master plan. Trees have been planted here without a master plan. Can the vice-chancellor guarantee that they will not be cut in future? This tree-planting programme is a farce. Trees must be planted thoughtfully and looked after."

He added that they would raise in the senate a demand to form an inquiry committee into all irregularities in the university's ongoing further development project since its start.

Senate member and philosophy professor Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan said that planting trees for show, after indiscriminately cutting trees and destroying life and nature without drawing up a master plan, was a contradiction on the administration's part. "We were not formally informed about this programme; we were told through a junior official. We think this is a mockery of us. So we boycotted the tree-planting programme."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.