Aviation India: Careers

New Delhi: Some of the fly-by-night agencies which try to dupe Indian students with promises of visas and admissions into colleges overseas have come under the scanner of the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA).
"The modus operandi in most cases is that the agencies, which are often run by Indians based overseas, put up large advertisements in Indian media and entice young Indian students with promises of visas and admissions into various courses overseas including pilot training and nursing," Vayalar Ravi, minister of overseas Indian affairs told ET.
The ministry is now trying to help some of the students who have become victims of such unscrupulous agencies including 100 Indian students who are enrolled at an institution called American School of Aviation in Atwater, California.
"These students had paid $40,000 as course fees and now find that they have been duped. They have been there for 18 months and the course which was supposed to be 10-month long is not yet finished. The NRI owners of the school are not refunding their course fees and classes have been suspended. The school authorities have not paid utility bills either and soon the students may be forced to leave the school when the utilities will be cut off," Mr Ravi said.
Besides helping the students who find themselves stranded in California through the consulate general of India in San Francisco, MOIA has also opened a 24-hour helpline to address students’ queries who wish to enrol for courses overseas.
29/06/08 Ishani Duttagupta/Economic Times