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BENGALURU: A few months ago, a Visvesvaraya Technological University officer approached a private company seeking participation in the campus placements . He was shocked when the company told him they had no vacancies as all the slots had been booked by a training institute .An investigation by VTU lifted the lid on the job racket. Some colleges and training institutes were colluding and taking bribes from students to make them job offers in private companies , months before the placement season. Their method was simple: A college collaborates with a training institute to coach engineering students on soft and technical skills to enhance their employability quotient. Once this programme is completed, the training institute gets the students to pay up and fix a job with a company. "Some colleges in connivance with training institutes charge around Rs 25,000 to conduct skill development training for two or four weeks,'' university officials said.The university smelt a rat when students began sending anonymous complaints to the authorities about the placement mafia. "We have taken this very seriously. VTU will soon issue a circular to its affiliated colleges not to collaborate for placements or privately offer soft-skills training. We will cancel their affiliation.''Last year, VTU issued a circular to engineering colleges, directing them not to collect excess fees for skill development programme. More than 50,000 students graduate from VTU's 202 colleges. VTU vice-chancellor H Maheshappa told TOI that despite a circular, colleges were continuing to collect excess fees to conduct training on skill development of students. "This year, if the complaints on placement racket are found to be true, affiliation of such colleges will be cancelled. We will conduct a detailed investigation into this job racket too," he added.Maheshappa said merit students suffer because of irregularities in the placement procedure.Varsity plans own skill trainersVTU is planning to create a cluster of engineering colleges in different regions of Karnataka to check the influence of private training institutes. Each cluster with a dozen colleges will have trainers to conduct skill development programmes.