Demands Return Of Former Trade Fair Ground
SAU Protests Proposed Secretariat Shift To Research Field
- SAU faculty and students protest against building Secretariat on university research land
- Demands immediate return of 28.13 acres of former International Trade Fair ground
- Encroachments reduced SAU land from 298 acres to 87 acres, impacting research
Facing severe spatial constraints for field trials, faculty members, students, and staff of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) have strongly opposed a proposal to construct the new National Secretariat on their traditional research grounds. Terming the plan a threat to ecological balance and agricultural innovation, the SAU community staged street demonstrations on Thursday (October 15, 2026). Organized by the ‘Research Field Recovery Steering Committee’, the day-long program included a human chain, a press conference, and the submission of a memorandum to the Prime Minister.
The demonstrations commenced at 11:30 AM with a massive human chain formation in front of the National Press Club, followed by a formal press briefing at the Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah Hall. Later in the afternoon, a delegate representing the SAU community proceeded to the Prime Minister’s Office to hand over the official petition.
Addressing the gathering, speakers asserted that the former International Trade Fair ground is legally and historically integral to SAU. During the 1980s, 28.13 acres of land were requisitioned for the trade fair without university consent. Protesters highlighted that constructing massive infrastructure over Sher-e-Bangla Nagar's open green space violates ecological guidelines, the architectural heritage of Louis I Kahn’s National Parliament master plan, the Antiquities Act 1968, BNBC 2020, and the Detailed Area Plan (DAP 2022–2035).
According to historical records presented during the press conference, the British government originally acquired 298.482 acres in 1920 for the Bengal Agricultural Institute to promote agricultural education and tech-driven research. However, systemic land acquisition over decades has drastically reduced the campus footprint to just 87 acres, crippling practical agronomic trials and biotechnology experiments.
Student representatives warned that hands-on research and field trials will be further crippled if the land is not restored to the university. The steering committee affirmed that unless the proposal is scrapped and the land returned to SAU, the university family will escalate its nationwide protest movement.
//DBTech/EHM/SMP/OEM//
