Hours after the abolishment of quotas in top government job, a group has taken to the demanding to revive it.
Protesters led by Muktijoddhar Sontan Command, an organisation of freedom fighters’ children, blocked the Shahbagh intersection in the capital on Wednesday night after the cabinet abolished quotas in first and second class jobs in the civil service.
They demand restoration of 30 percent seats reserved for the descendants of freedom fighters.
The Bangladesh Council to Protect General Students’ Rights, the platform which led quota protests against quota in public service, welcomed the government’s decision, but said they wanted reforms to quotas, not abolishment.
The quota system allowed the government to preserve 56 percent posts in jobs under different quotas: 30 percent for families of freedom fighters, 10 percent for women, 10 percent for disadvantaged districts, 5 percent for small ethnic groups and 1 percent for people with disabilities.
Students and jobseekers have been protesting against the system, demanding that the total jobs preserved for different quotas be brought down to 10 percent.
When the protests peaked in April, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the Parliament that the entire system will be scrapped.
Later, the government formed a panel to review it, which suggested abolishing quotas in first and second class government jobs.
The proposal was cleared during Wednesday’s cabinet meeting chaired by Hasina.