Bhubaneshwar job scam: Students, parents clash with university as fake campus placement leave them in fix

Representational image. Thinkstock[/caption]Students of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) University and their parents said the matter came to light when over 50 BTech students returned empty handed from a company in Gurgaon where they had gone with the job offer letters purportedly given by it.Police were deployed near the university campus to prevent any untoward incident, police said.The students said they were selected through campus placement, but company officials in Gurgaon told them that the offer letters given to them were fakes.On being informed by the students and their parents, the authorities crosschecked and found that job offers of several other reputed companies were also fake, a university official said.University officials admitted the incident and said that the students had fallen victims of "imposters" who had no connection in several companies.The consultancy firm, which had been engaged to facilitate the placement, had apparently made false job promises on behalf of the companies, they said.Dean of ITER, the faculty of engineering and technology of the institute, PK Sahoo said a meeting was held with the vice-chancellor and efforts are on to revolve the issue.He said the affected students have been assured that they would be given a stipend of Rs 20,000 each to be engaged as teaching assistants. The university would also bear TA/DA of the students, who had gone to join the companies."We will always be in touch with the students... We have all been affected," Sahoo said.However, the students were unwilling to accept the offer and wanted the top brass including the institute's chairman to intervene.A spokesperson for the university said talks were on with the affected students to resolve the issue.