COVID-19 pandemic: HRD minister appeals companies to not withdraw job offers made in campus placements
As reports emerged recently about companies rescinding job offers given through campus placements, the education minister on Monday requested the concerned parties to not withdraw the offers due to the economic slowdown created by the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, The Indian Express reported that a leading company withdrawn its offers to 17 students across premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
After saying the government is working to ensure that the current COVID-19 situation does not have a long-lasting affect on the economy, the Human Resource Development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said he has appealed to companies to not withdraw any job offers made to students to ease the worries of graduating students about placements.
While meeting the directors various IITs last week, the minister had called for a task force for placements that may be set up in institutes to liase with various companies to ensure that adequate placement not below the levels of past years may take place in these institutes.
The meeting had already decided to conduct special drive in July/August for the students whose jobs have been withdrawn after campus placement.
"It will be unfair not to hire these students who are actually bright and can contribute to pulling the country out of this situation," Mr Nishank said.
According to Press Trust of India, the All IITs' Placement Committee (AIPC) had also reached out to all the companies that visited for campus recruitment, requesting them not to rescind placement offers made for the academic year 2019-20.
IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao, had also issued a public appeal to all recruiters on last Friday.
Mr Rao said that since all IITs strictly follow the equal opportunity principle (one candidate, one job), withdrawing an offer would mean students "will end up not having any job right now", PTI reported.
"..in IITs, the placement process works very different from similar top institutions abroad.
"...Once a student is offered a placement, as per IIT Delhi policy, the student is not allowed to sit for other placements. Students trust the companies with their offers and do not even apply for other companies.
"...As a result, if a job or an internship offer is withdrawn at this stage, the student, having given up her/his right to apply for other similar jobs, will end up not having any job right now," Mr Rao wrote in a Facebook post.
"We all understand these are difficult times. But please be considerate to keep your promises. A few months of delay may be fine. Please do not complicate the lives of these brightest children in an already complex environment. If at all, they are capable of getting you out of recession faster than you can imagine," he wrote.
This season, most of the premier IITs and IIMs had recorded 100 per cent placements.
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