File picture of students watching posters prior to attend a campus selection session in their institute

Bhubaneswar, Aug 3: Dubious companies are increasingly surfacing on college campuses for recruitment drives, handing fake offer letters to gullible students only to vanish with money the latter pays towards placement charges.

Though very few victims are ready to act as whistleblowers for fear of reprisal, students and guardians said the casualty figure could be quite high.

Sumit (name changed) completed his engineering degree with a loan on his shoulders and thought it was worth it when he bagged a job offer from a Hyderabad-based company two months ago. But his joy was short-lived.

“Besides me, 11 others from my college had been recruited. But later, we were asked to pay Rs 1 lakh each as per company regulations. Only two students obliged, while the rest of us backed out,” he said.

Many victims said the companies, in most cases, duped them in collusion with college authorities.

“Nine of us were selected for an IT company and had to pay Rs 10,000 each to the college placement officer. Two months elapsed, but no offer letter came. He returned only Rs 8,000 to each of us, keeping the rest to pay for the headhunter’s travel and lodging expenses during the placement,” said another engineering graduate.

Most students are reluctant to approach police as they would not like to entangle in legal battles. On the other hand, authorities of these colleges refuse to comment as publicity to such incidents would only ruin their reputation.

For on-campus placements, companies recruit students in exchange of money, said placement official of a private college.

“They ask for nearly Rs 25,000 per student. Job consultancy firms charge 8.33 per cent of the annual pay package or first month’s salary of students who get placed. It is collected from colleges,” he said.

The student was then given an offer letter mentioning the date of joining. However, when the student or the institute tried to contact the company on the due date, they found no records of their existence. Some headhunters were quick to hand “offer letters” but kept delaying “appointment letters”.

“Though the college pays for the placement, students blame us when duped. Fake companies present themselves in the most professional manner and con us. Many a time faculty members double up as placement coordinators who know little about the fake job racket,” the official said.

For off-campus recruitment, money was collected directly from students in the name of “registration fee” but their ordeal was not very different.

A college official said the cheating business was typical of start-up companies looking for recruits for particular projects. They usually target lesser-known private colleges.

“There is a gap of eight to ten months between making a job offer and joining of students and the new companies shut down if they fail to perform, thereby affecting students. Even reputed IT companies are outsourcing their work to smaller organisations that often trap students,” he said, adding that dubious companies, mostly in the IT and electronics sector, were visible now more than ever as the economic recession had squeezed out jobs.

As a precautionary measure, many private colleges, at the time of admissions, have started asking students to sign on declarations or undertakings that “the institution shall not be responsible for post-recruitment problems”.

On the other hand, the BPUT Students’ Protection Council has demanded action against institutes and companies that have duped them.

“The private colleges deliberately organise fake placement drives to boast about so-called 100 per cent recruitment to the subsequent batches. The government must withdraw affiliation to such colleges and impose fine on them. A central placement cell would solve most of our problems,” said president of the council Biplab Prakash Mohanty.

As the placement season approaches, Utkal University authorities are exercising caution to tackle fraudsters. “Our placement cell has developed a set of parameters. The first thing we do is to find out if the company has a physical existence, checking if it is registered under the ministry of corporate affairs. We go through details such as balance sheet and turnover to gauge its performance. Students must also run a thorough check on companies coming to campus,” said placement officer of Utkal University, Sarit Panda, adding that the varsity turned down at least 12 companies last year for campus recruitment for the want of credentials.

Private universities such as KIIT and Siksha O Anusandhan have kept themselves out of the muddle through an expert team of placement officials and constant supervision.

“We invite people from only core companies, check their market presence and pay packages they are willing to offer,” said an official of the KIIT University.

An official of Siksha O Anusandhan said they discussed terms and conditions with companies before inviting them to the campus as there have been cases of recruits being removed from jobs after two months of service.

“Besides, we have a strong in-house mechanism where we generally avoid consultants and contact companies directly,” said an official.