Students protest over fake campus placement offers

Students of Institute of Technical Education & Research (ITER) of a private University continued their protest over fake campus placement for second day today while the varsity asked them to respond to its proposals including a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 by May 31.

The students staged a sit-in and hunger strike near the main gate of the college under Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University (SOA) here accusing the varsity authorities of washing their hands off by putting the blame on consultancy agency for giving fake job offer letters.

A university official said SOA has already moved the police against the consultancy firm which had conducted fake recruitment drives in ITER, the faculty of engineering and technology, for nine different companies.
 

The consultancy firm had provided offer letters to several students on behalf of these companies but when the students reached the Gurugram office of a company, it was found that the letters were fake, he said.

The university has announced that it would be offering a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 to each of the affected student for a year or till he or she got a job, whichever was earlier, SOA University said in a statement.

Besides, if the student wished to study M.Tech, the university would enable him or her to do so without charging the course fee. In case the student wished to study MBA, first year's course fee would be borne by the university, it said.

The students have been asked to respond to these proposals by May 31, it said.

Vice-Chancellor of SOA University, Prof Amit Banerjee said it was a well-planned and mischievously timed conspiracy against the university to defame it.

While the university was charting out the course for aiding the duped students, all necessary steps are being initiated to bring the culprits to book. The university would stand behind the students in this case, he said.

Meanwhile, Odisha's Higher Education Minister Ananta Das said the state government can consider possible steps as per law after examining the matter. Appropriate steps can be taken if anything unlawful has taken place, he said adding educational institutions need to be careful during campus placement drives.