The children of freedom fighters will hold a prescheduled rally in the city’s Shahbagh area around 3pm today, demanding 30% quota

The children of freedom fighters will hold a prescheduled rally in the city’s Shahbagh area around 3pm today, demanding 30% quota for freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren in the government job.

“A protest rally will be held in the capital on Saturday afternoon against the government approval of scrapping quota and to reinstall the 30% quota for the freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren,” said Mahbubul Islam Prince, secretary to the central committee of Muktijoddha Sangsad Santan Command.

Earlier on October 4, the children of freedom fighters have locked Shahbagh intersection in the capital and Dhaka-Rajshahi highway, demanding 30% quota for freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren.

They blocked the roads in the capital for the second consecutive day on October 4 after the Cabinet gave final approval on October 3 to the draft of scrapping quota provision in the government jobs amid countrywide mass protests from jobseekers and students.

Freedom Fighter quota beneficiaries have been staging movement against the cabinet decision under the banner of ‘Muktijoddha Sangsad Santan Command’, a platform of freedom fighters’ children.

On the day, they blocked the Shahbagh intersection around 7am, halting traffic on the busy roads from Jatiya Press Club to Science Laboratory, and from TSC intersection to Karwan Bazar while other roads are likely to be affected following the blockades.

In a recent comment on quota abolishment, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said: “If anyone wants quota now, there will have to be a movement for it. And then we will think about it.”

A high-power government committee has also recommended abolishing the quota system for class-I and class-II jobs of the government service.

The job seekers and students, on the other hand, of various educational institutions in the capital and elsewhere in the country have been demonstrating against the existing quota system in the government recruitment processes for more than a decade.

The job seekers have demanded reformation of the existing quota system in BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) and other government recruitment processes in the country under the banner of “Bangladesh Shadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad” in the current movement.

During their recent movement in the capital, they have placed a five-point demand, including reducing the allocation of quota privileges to 10 percent from the existing 56 percent in the government recruitment processes.