Microsoft had already taken tests at the college, as a part of campus placement process, and the students are now awaiting results of the final test conducted in Bangalore, said Bhasme. Meanwhile, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), the leading Indian multinational, which has business interests in engineering, construction, manufacturing goods, information technology and financial services, conducted tests for campus selection on January 4. Around 75 students — from civil, mechanical and electrical divisions — took their written tests, out of which the company selected 66 students for personal interviews. It will soon declare the list of final candidates, said Bhasme. 

As L&T Heavy Engineering and L&T Construction Company have been conducting campus recruitment in the government engineering college for the last 25 years, the college administration has decided to sign a contract with the group, which will enable the students to take industrial training workshop with them, the placement head said. The company has given positive response to the proposal and that they will conduct further talk with the company soon. News-LT

Earlier, the IT companies visited engineering colleges at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur for Campus Interviews. Many new graduates dream of being recruited by the multinational companies such as Microsoft which pay the highest annual package of Rs 16 lakh to graduates. For inviting Microsoft to Aurangabad, training and placement department of the GCEA took the assessment test of the final year students. The responsibility of this test was given to a third party (private company). Chief of the training and placement cell professor Nitin Bhasme sent their profiles to Microsoft. After observing the profiles of the students, the company gave Aurangabad centre green signal for the campus interview. 

The AMC had demanded for 100 acres of land at Mitmita for the zoo, but the government has not sanctioned it as the park is to be operated on a build, operate and transfer basis. The AMC had also assured the government of paying the cost of the land required for the zoo, but things did not move further. At present, the zoo is at 20 acres of land at Siddharth Garden. The sources also disclosed that the AMC had hired the services of a Pune-based infrastructure consultancy to prepare a plan for the proposed park at Mitmita. The Central Zoo Authority of India had given Rs 2 lakh to prepare the plan.

The information of the fire incident was passed on to the fire brigade soon and within 15 minutes three fire tenders reached the spot. They were followed by 3 water tankers also. A team of over 25 firemen extinguished the flames by dousing nearly 150 liters of foam in 45 minutes, said the chief fire officer, Shivaji Jhanjhan.

Jhanjhan said that had the fire engulfed the tanker and underground tank, it could have been the worst tragedy in the history of city. There was a danger of tanker as well as underground tank burst, which could have reduced the area in a periphery of one kilo metre to ashes claiming several lives. All credit goes to Feroz Khan Salim Khan (30, Nagsen Colony) and Mushtaq Builder (30) for showing the presence of mind and taking the tanker out of the fire range before the fire became uncontrollable. Talking to LT, Feroz Khan and Mushtaq Builder said that they weren't concerned to the petrol pump, but were just having cup of tea at a kiosk when the fire broke out. As they were professional drivers, they drove the tanker out of the pump area. The fireballs were seen in the sky and this attracted a massive crowd of onlookers on the spot. A team of policemen from the Kranti Chowk police station headed by PI Prakash Kulkarni reached the spot and dispersed the mob. This made the job of firemen easier. Many senior officers of the police department and corporation apart from public representatives also reached the spot.News-LT

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