Madras HC to HRD Ministry: Tell us your plan for jobless engineers

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday asked the HRD Ministry if there was any scheme available with it to deal with unemployment engineering graduates in the country.

Justice N Kirubakaran was hearing a petition by S K Natarajan seeking a direction to the state government to implement the Tamil Nadu State Level Placement Programme in top IT firms in a fair and effective manner for holding a common campus recruitment programme for students of all engineering colleges, including his daughter.

The petitioner sought a direction against the conduct of such interviews only in select colleges.

Impleading the ministry, the judge said a larger issue is involved in the petition with regard to the opening of more number of engineering colleges and production of more number of engineering graduates, resulting in the problem of unemployment.

"The ministry is directed to answer as to whether there is any scheme available with the department to deal with unemployment problem of the engineering graduates in our country and if it is so, what is the scheme?" the judge said.

The judge also impleaded the All India Council for Technical Education in the matter with a direction to file a report on the number of engineering colleges in the country, students admitted, and their employability by November 7.