VTU probes complaints of firms demanding money from students for internships
Bengaluru: Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has launched an inquiry after students alleged that some companies empanelled with the varsity for internships are demanding money, including fees for issuing internship completion certificates.
The allegations have raised serious concerns, particularly as companies offering internships are required to pay stipends to students, as reported by Deccan Herald. Acting on the complaints, VTU has constituted a team to verify the claims. The panel has been directed to visit the companies named by students and submit a detailed report based on its findings.
Several students have complained that when they approached firms listed on VTU’s official portal, they were told that payment was mandatory to secure an internship. One student said a company representative clearly stated that money would have to be paid even before onboarding.
VTU has made a six-month internship compulsory for all undergraduate engineering students. While students are required to complete it in either the seventh or eighth semester, it carries nine academic credits.
A senior VTU official said the university tightened its internship norms after instances of students submitting fake completion certificates to colleges. To curb such practices, VTU mandated that internships be done only with companies registered with the university and launched an online portal for the purpose. More than 2,500 companies are currently listed on the platform as providers of paid internships.
Placement officers from private engineering colleges have confirmed that complaints from students about companies seeking money have been formally conveyed to the university.
According to a report published by DH, S. Vidyashankar , VTU Vice-Chancellor acknowledged receiving the complaints and said strict action would follow if the allegations were proven. He said companies found charging students would be blacklisted and barred from participating in any VTU programmes in the future.
The vice-chancellor said the university had also received complaints about students failing to attend internships regularly and that the VTU team will also check attendance records during visits to companies.
Vidyashankar said nearly 85,000 students become eligible for internships every year which made it difficult to ensure opportunities for all. He said VTU plans to hold discussions with industry representatives to increase the number of paid internships and would seek government intervention.
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No nation can progress unless small traders are protected: Arvind Kejriwal
Chandigarh (PTI): No nation can progress unless small shopkeepers and traders are protected and given ease of doing business, Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.
Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing the maiden meeting of the Punjab State Traders Commission in Mohali, where he was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The former Delhi chief minister said that through the commission, local markets will be upgraded, and long-pending small issues of shopkeepers will be resolved.
He said the purpose of the commission is to make the tax system simpler, more transparent, and trader-friendly.
"Till now, in our country, traders and businessmen have been viewed with a very negative mindset. No matter which government or which party ruled, everyone treated traders as thieves," Kejriwal said.
"I pray that one day our government is formed at the Centre and we free you from GST. There is a kind of tax terrorism going on," he said.
Kejriwal termed the traders also a victim of politicians, who, he said, only remember them during elections and then, once in power, to extort money till the next election.
"I come from a trading family. I understand the pain and suffering of a trader. You may remember how, as children, we used to go to the village during summer holidays. My uncle there had a grocery shop at the bus stand. During summer vacations, many times I would manage the entire shop alone for days. I understand the pain of a shopkeeper," he said.
The AAP leader said the governments always talk about big investments everywhere. "But no one ever paid attention to the small shopkeeper running a grocery store, a clothing shop, a bread shop, a tile shop, or shops in small markets."
Attacking the rival parties in Punjab, he said that after their run was over, neither the Akali Dal nor the Congress would have dared to go among the public and seek honest feedback.
"After four years, they would face such abuse that I do not think the Congress government would have had the courage to pass around a microphone in a public gathering and say, speak whatever you want … If it had happened during the Akali Dal government, the microphone would not have returned," he said.
