Job seekers in Odisha taken for a ride!

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Aug 9:

Tension ran high inside the premises of Hotel Kalinga Ashok here today following a heated exchange between hundreds of  job seekers in Odisha and the officials of Spruha Tech Pvt Ltd (STPL), a project development and training institute located near the Master Canteen square here.

The candidates alleged that they had been duped by the firm, which promised to engage them in different multinational companies, core sectors, IT firmsand leading banks.

According to sources in the Badagada police station, the firm which organised the ‘Mega Job Carnival’, a 2-day job fair for engineering, Diploma, MBA, BBA, BA and BSc graduates at the Hotel Kalinga Ashok today to provide well-paid jobs failed to keep its promise.

Students attending the fair were asked to register their names by paying Rs 600 each, to appear for job interviews before the selectors representing a number of private firms.

Over 1000 students registered their names and the organisers, Spruha Tech Pvt Ltd (STPL), collected more than Rs 6 lakh.

However,the so-called big firms, which were supposed to recruit eligible candidates in the fair were nowhere to be seen. This led to suspicion among the job seekers.

When asked for their Id proof, some of the organisers allegedly showed fake identity cards to the students. It was then that the students realized the organisers were trying to take them for a ride.

The angry students then ransacked the hotel premises and detained three organisers.

After receiving information, the Badagada police rushed to the spot and rescued the detainees Pritam Kumar Jena, Lingaraj Jena and Asim Dixit, officials of the STPL.

The STPL organisers were arrested and later released on PR bond after they gave an undertaking to refund the collected money to the job seekers.

Meanwhile 300 candidates got their money back and the rest were promised refund soon.

However, STPL’s senior business analyst Ashwini Dixit refuted the allegations that they had cheated the job seekers, saying,  the confusion and misunderstanding took place because a number of multinational companies failed to keep their words and did not send their representatives to the job fair.