RANGPUR — Students at Begum Rokeya University said the campus ambulance had been out of service for three days because of a fuel shortage, leaving sick students without emergency transport.
“Is the price of fuel worth more than a life?” said Hafizur Rahman Siam, a student in the physics department, expressing the frustration of many on campus. Officials have blamed the country’s continuing fuel shortage for the suspension of the emergency service.
Students said the transport pool was poorly managed. Their complaints include the lack of emergency ambulance service, buses failing to stop at designated stops and drivers picking up paying passengers, wasting students’ time.
Siam said the breakdown reflected severe mismanagement and a lack of compassion by the administration. “When a critically ill student called for an ambulance, they were told there was no fuel,” he said. “If this is the state of emergency services at a public university, it raises questions about the very existence of the administration. Is the price of fuel worth more than a student’s life?”
Shafayat Shuvo, a marketing student who was also denied service, said the failure showed the administration’s indifference. “There is nothing more disappointing than a vehicle as critical as an ambulance running out of fuel,” he said. “The buses are running and the administration’s other vehicles are running. Why this excuse only for the ambulance? That question will remain.”
Shamsur Rahman Sumon, a student in the Bengali department, said he had been told the same thing on an earlier call for emergency service. “I got the same excuse — no fuel,” he said.
Dr. A.M.M. Shahriar Kabir, director of the university’s medical center, said keeping the vehicle running was entirely the responsibility of the transport pool. “Our job is to operate the service. When I get a call, my job is to send the vehicle,” he said. He said the medical center had at times provided service without the ambulance. The transport pool had been trying for three days to get fuel, but the pump where the university buys fuel had also been out for three days, he said.
Associate Professor Masud Rana, the director of the transport pool, said decisions about ambulance use rested entirely with the medical center. “The ambulance is under the medical center under our policy,” he said. Asked about a video showing a driver picking up outside passengers, Rana said he had written to the depot manager, who told him the driver would be suspended that day. He said other vehicles stopped only at designated points.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report