Students come out of National Institute of Technology. Picture by Jai Prakash

Public sector undertakings (PSUs) are likely to visit engineering colleges for campus recruitment after a year-long gap.

With Madras High Court vacating its stay after a public interest litigation (PIL) sought cancellation of campus recruitment by PSUs in engineering colleges, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna has geared up to invite PSUs for campus recruitment. NIT Patna placement in-charge G.K. Chaudhary said: “With the Madras High Court lifting the stay order on campus recruitment by PSUs, the NIT Patna administration has written letters to various PSUs.” Those invited include Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), Indian Oil, Coal India Limited (CIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and many maharatna companies.

If the PSUs open their doors to campus students, many would benefit, as PSUs remain a hot favourite during campus recruitments at NIT. The PSUs too prefer NIT Patna as the institute is old and its mechanical, electrical and civil branches remain its pride. Around 30 students graduating in 2007-11 were recruited by PSUs such as NTPC, Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL, Gail.

The 2008-12 batch was not that lucky. Only two PSUs, BPCL and Indian Oil, visited the institute and that too after September 2012 when the high court lifted the stay. NTPC, Gail, Coal India and others did not recruit from the campus.

Placement in-charge Chaudhary further said: “As the court has lifted its stay order, we are optimistic that once again large PSUs would visit the institute for campus recruitment.”

Echoing Chaudhary, Piyush Kumar, a final-year civil engineering student, said: “It is a good initiative by the institute to invite PSUs for campus recruitment as many students would get placement.”

After Madras High Court lifted its stay order last September, NIT Patna had taken no initiative to invite PSUs for campus recruitment as most companies that visited the institute were from the private sector. Sources said that only two PSUs visited the institute for campus recruitment in February-March 2013.

The PIL was filed by some organisations fighting for the cause of SC/STs. It said in its plea that the practice of holding campus recruitments in private institutions was against public employment policy, as PSUs cannot disregard reservation policy.

Campus recruitment has begun NIT Patna. Earlier this month, Mu Sigma, an analytics service provider company, visited the institute and recruited six students. Then, Arizone Technologies, another IT solution company, recruited nine others. Automobile manufacturers Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and Maruti Suzuki India Limited had conducted written tests but the results are still awaited.

NIT is also tying up with British Council, Calcutta, for imparting personality development courses to improve the students’ communications skills.