Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Patna, on Friday announced the start of its placement session from the first week of August and the participation of at least six companies over the next two months.

Raj Kumar, the training and placement in-charge of BIT-Patna, an extension centre of BIT-Mesra, said: “The placement session of students is likely to start from August and students don’t have to worry.”

The statement assumes importance, as a large number of fourth-year students skipped classes last Monday and Tuesday over the delay in placement session. Last Wednesday, they staged a demonstration in front of BIT-Patna director S.L. Gupta’s chamber over the issue. Sources said the students didn’t even turn up for their meal at the hostel mess on Tuesday.

Considering the seriousness of the issue, BIT-Mesra (Ranchi) training and placement head B.B. Pant arrived at the Patna campus on Wednesday and assured the students of starting of the placement session on time. A fourth-year computer science student said: “Though the issue has been settled now, our demand is to provide BIT-Patna students placements on a par with those of BIT-Mesra. We have come to know that the placement session at the latter has started, while it is yet to start in our institute.”

Sources said the BIT-Patna administration has started adopting damage-control measures by rushing BIT-Patna director S.L. Gupta to the Ranchi campus to sort out the issue with the BIT-Mesra management.

Though the BIT-Patna administration refused to share details of companies visiting the institute this year, sources put the number at around six. They said Mu Sigma, an analytics services provider, would visit the institute on August 5 followed by Cybage Software, a product engineering and IT services company, on August 9. Next in queue would be automobile giant Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

A senior official of BIT-Patna said: “The students’ protest was unwarranted, as placement sessions at many institutes, including IITs and NITs, have not started. More than eight months are left for final-year students to pass out.”