Thiruvananthapuram: The government has dismissed a consultant at Norka, a recruitment agency for foreign appointments, for alleged human-trafficking records.
In a website post, Norka said that Vivekanandan, operating as B. Vivek, has been dismissed and that candidates should not approach him for recruitment. He was taken to task after it was found that he had tried to sabotage Norka's recruitment for nurses to a Kuwait-based oil firm with his own recruitment processes.
Manorama had earlier published a report that foreign recruitments of Norka were being led by a person who had been arrested by the CBI for human trafficking. The oil company in Kuwait followed up with its investigations which led to action against Vivekanandan.
Norka wanted to hire 150 nurses to Kuwait and had released an advertisement in this regard last month. The Vigilance reported that the consultant and some private agencies had flouted norms in the hiring process and were hiring nurses on their own. Candidates who had applied for the post also said that private agencies had demanded a huge sum from them for the posting. The scandal is believed to have been conducted with the collusion of General Trading Company (GCT), an agency in Kuwait, which is overseeing the hiring process.
Following the scandal, Norka has cancelled a scheduled interview in Bangalore. Meanwhile, GCT's license has been cancelled by the Kuwaiti government. The oil company has also ended its contract with GCT and has informed this to Norka. Following the development, a representative from GCT met Norka authorities and said that the consultant had cheated the firm for the purpose of human trafficking. This finally prompted the government to act against Vivekanandan, a former travel agent, in spite of his influence with higher ups.
General administration secretary and Norka CEO Usha Titus dismissed Vivekanandan and ordered relevant documents to be seized from him. Norka has decided to keep out consultants and deal with foreign agencies on its own. It would seek help from government officials who are in foreign nations in this regard. The central government had entrusted Norka and Odepec with recruitments specifically to prevent human trafficking. However, private consultants had misused the agencies. It was revealed that the agencies had demanded Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh from candidates for the appointment while Norka's fee is Rs 20,000.