Rajshahi University hall union shares hall mangoes equally with resident students

Leaders of the Shahid Ziaur Rahman Hall union at Rajshahi University (RU) picked mangoes from the trees around the hall on Wednesday 20 May 2026 and delivered them to the resident students' rooms. According to Jagonews24 and Bdtoday, the fruit was divided equally among all the students. Earlier, the unions of two other RU halls, Bijoy 24 Hall and Motihar Hall, had shared litchis from their own trees with residents in the same way.

Bdtoday reported that the union wanted to stop a few people from picking the fruit of the trees beside the hall for themselves, so that every student would have an equal chance to eat it. The mangoes were then taken from room to room.

Hall union vice-president Mozammel Haque said there were many mango trees beside the hall, but for various reasons most students missed out on their fruit. The union had decided that once the mangoes were ready to eat they would be picked and shared equally among all the students, and that had been done. He described it as a small initiative taken out of moral responsibility and mutual goodwill, not a formality.

Fahim Hasan, a resident student, said that in the past people simply picked and ate the hall's mangoes as they pleased. What he liked most this time, he said, was not just the mangoes but the effort to bring them to the students, and he asked for such planned initiatives to continue.

The hall provost, Dr Md Mahbubar Rahman, called it praiseworthy work. He said the union's representatives had told him that if the mangoes could be stored properly they could be given to every student. Had the university not been closing, he said, the mangoes could have reached the students riper. He added that a shortage of staff had made such a distribution impossible in earlier years.

On 17 May the RU administration announced that classes and examinations would stop from 24 May to 8 June for Eid ul-Adha and the summer vacation. A notice on 18 May said the residential halls would close at noon on 24 May and reopen at 8 am on 5 June.

Under the Rajshahi district administration's 2026 mango calendar, picking of the local Guti mangoes began in the district on 15 May. The calendar set 22 May for Gopalbhog, 25 May for Lakshmanbhog (Lakhna) and Rani Pasand, 30 May for Himsagar or Khirsapat, 10 June for Langra and 15 June for Amrapali and Fazli. Citing the district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Jagonews24 reported a mango production target of 243,995 tonnes for Rajshahi district in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Bijoy 24 Hall shared its litchis on Friday 1 May. Amar Desh reported that about 5,000 litchis were picked in the hall grounds and divided equally among 135 rooms, including the PhD block, and the hall's officers and staff, with 25 to 30 fresh litchis going to each room. That hall union's vice-president, Rasel Mia, said the fruit of the hall's litchi trees had been shared among students the previous year as well.

Elections to the Rajshahi University Central Students' Union (RUCSU) and the hall unions were held on 16 October 2025. Prothom Alo reported a turnout of 71.68 per cent that day at Shahid Ziaur Rahman Hall, one of the university's 11 halls for male students.

Founded in 1953, Rajshahi University is the second oldest university in Bangladesh. Its main campus of about 753 acres lies at Motihar on the eastern side of Rajshahi city and has mango plantations; the campus's well-known Paris Road runs past them.

Photo: Kritzolina / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Bdtoday, Amar Desh, Dhaka Today, Prothom Alo, Wikipedia