Torch procession at DU, demands fix power crisis, end privatisation

The Democratic Student Alliance brought out a torch procession and held a rally at Dhaka University (DU) on Tuesday.

The demonstration was organised to demand a solution to the ongoing gas and electricity crisis, protest privatisation moves, and call for strict control over essential medicine prices.

The event, titled "Students-People Torch Procession," took place at the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of the university.

During the programme, the coalition presented a three-point demand.

Their demands include stopping the handover of national energy resources and power distribution management to corporate groups through privatisation, immediately resolving energy shortages to ensure an affordable, uninterrupted supply, and maintaining effective government price controls on essential medicines.

The procession paraded through key campus roads before ending in a brief rally.

Rafiquzzaman Farid, General Secretary of the Samajtantrik Chhatra Front and Coordinator of the Democratic Student Alliance, presided over the rally.

Moderated by Bangladesh Chhatra Union President Tamjid Haider Chowdhury, the rally was addressed by Pahari Chhatra Parishad Organisational Secretary Ronal Chakma, Revolutionary Student-Youth Movement leader Arunabha Ashraf, Democratic Student Council General Secretary Fahim Ahmed Chowdhury, and Revolutionary Student Unity General Secretary Jabir Ahmed Jubel. Seema Dutta, President of Bangladesh Nari Mukti Kendra, also expressed solidarity with the event.

Speakers at the rally warned that state assets and public services are increasingly falling under the control of profit-driven private capital. Turning essential sectors like energy, power, railway, and medicine into commodities will raise living costs for ordinary people and threaten employment, they said.

They noted that past experiences of privatisation demonstrate that handing over public assets to private ownership merely serves the interests of large capitalists.

The student leaders urged everyone to build a united movement to resist privatisation policies.

-SA