Manjurul Alam, acting principal of Women's Degree College in Kalapara of Patuakhali district, is holding his post illegally.
The governing body of the college did not comply with the order of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE).
The DSHE ordered the college governing body to relieve him from the duties of the acting principal and appoint senior assistant professor (English) Abul Kalam Azad as the acting principal. As a result, the deadlock over this administrative post is not ending.
According to college sources, the post became vacant when the principal of the college, Abu Sayeed, died on December 26, 2020. Later, the governing body of the college appointed assistant professor Zahir Uddin Md Farooq as the acting principal. At that time, the appointment process of the regular principal was on the way to completion. In such situation, on January 1, 2022, the then president of the governing body, Mohammad Bahauddin, illegally removed him and assigned assistant professor Manjurul Alam as the acting principal.
According to the rules of the DSHE, there is an obligation to appoint Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad as acting principal in the absence of vice-principal of the college. But the governing body ignored it and appointed the junior assistant professor Manjurul Alam as the acting principal. Even though the then governing body got eight months’ time, acting principal Manjurul Alam did not appoint a principal in the college.
Challenging the illegal decision of the president of the governing body, Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad applied to the DSHE for his appointment as the acting principal as he is the most senior assistant professor. In view of his application, on October 17, 2023, an official order signed by Tapan Kumar Das, assistant director of the DSHE, requested the president of the College Governing Body to assign responsibility to Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad within 10 working days.
Meanwhile, an official order signed by Fahima Sultana, college inspector of National University (NU), directed the college authorities to relieve Manjurul Alam of the post of acting principal on May 19 this year. But that order is also being ignored.
According to the rules, Manjurul Alam is supposed to perform this duty for a maximum of one year, but till now he is performing this duty. Although there is a rule to appoint a full-time principal by issuing a notification within one year, he has held the post for two-and-a-half years without doing so.
Acting Principal Manjurul Alam could not give any answer to the question why he is holding the post of principal illegally ignoring the instructions of the DSHE and the NU. However, he said for a long time the college has been managed by ad hoc committees. Now a full-fledged committee has been constituted and steps have been taken to appoint a principal.
However, Zahir Uddin Md Farooq, assistant professor of the Bengali department of the college, said, “Manjurul Alam has been serving as the acting principal for two and a half years, which is not legal in any way. During this time he did not behave well with any teacher-employee. Everyone is fed up with his misbehaviour.”
The college governing body president, Md Humayun Kabir, could not be contacted as he was in India for treatment.
