Students sit honors final exams in knee-deep water in Cumilla

Due to two days of continuous rain, the Dharmapur degree branch of Cumilla Victoria Government College has once again been submerged in water. As a result, final-year honors students had to sit in knee-deep water to take their final exams.

College sources said that due to the rain, water entered the college's Arts Building, Science Building, Business Education Building and Millennium Building. Even after 24 hours of the rain stopping, the water has not receded from the ground floor of the Arts and Business Education Building.

Students who sat on the ground floor of these buildings took their first Honors Final exams by sitting on benches on Thursday (April 30).

College students said that this waterlogging problem has been going on for more than a decade. Although initiatives have been taken to resolve the waterlogging at various times, the suffering has not diminished in reality. Rather, the damage to the buildings is increasing every year.

Tahmina Akhter, a student who came to take the exam from Barura Upazila, said that to get to the ground floor of the Arts Building, one has to cross a wooden bridge. Even though it was dry outside, one had to dip one's feet in water to take the exam.

Another examinee, Fahim Ahmed, said, this situation in a reputed college is unacceptable. I thought there would be no water today, but when I arrived, I saw water inside the room. How long can one sit and take the exam like this?

It was seen on the spot in the afternoon that the entire campus was knee-deep in water. The ground floor of the Business Education Building was completely submerged. There was also water on the ground floor of the central library. Some people were seen trying to catch fish with nets there.

Abdullah Al Maruf, general secretary of the College Journalists' Association, said, "Brilliant people are being produced here, aren't they at risk of health? The college, which has 30,000 students, has been leaking for years, but no one cares."

College principal Abul Bashar Bhuiyan said that outside water enters the college campus. If it rains a little too much, the ground floors of some buildings get flooded.

He said that two tenders have been issued for the drainage project and the construction of a road adjacent to the boundary wall to resolve the waterlogging, but he does not know why the work has not started.

Regarding the suffering of the candidates, he said, "We have rearranged the seats as much as possible. Hopefully, there will be no waterlogging before the next exam."