Orissa JEE seat allotment starts

Issued in Public Interest by

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BHUBANESWAR: The much-delayed seat allotment for engineering and other professional courses finally started on Friday after the Orissa high court directed the state government to stick to the AICTE norms on eligibility criteria.

"The provisional allotment process is on and the first list will be published online later in the evening. A reporting schedule for depositing of fees between August 20 and 25 will be published on the OJEEwebsite and in newspapers on Saturday," said OJEE vice-chairman Dr Sitaram Mahapatra.

The provisional list of 19,000 candidates in engineering courses will be published on Saturday and that of 3,500 candidates in MBA and MCA courses will be published in three days, he added.

After the students deposit their fees (Rs 16,000 for government colleges and Rs 30,000 for private colleges), the final allotment of seat will be done on September 2, Dr Mahapatra said. Classes will start on September 7, he added.

Following the HC direction, a total of 1568 OJEE qualifiers, who had scored below 45 per cent marks in Plus II, won't be able to take admission in engineering courses. For other courses such as MBA, MCA and pharmacy, the eligibility criteria remain 50 per cent for general candidates and 45 for SC/ST.

Seat allotment for MBA/MCA and engineering was scheduled on July 21 and August 5 respectively. But the court case delayed the process.

Though the HC dismissed the petition by the Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) secretary, Binod Dash, who had challenged the AICTE criteria in OJEE, the court direction still helped around 2,000 candidates who had scored between 45 and 50 per cent.

According to the original advertisement, the OJEE had kept 50 per cent cut-off in qualifying examination as the eligibility criteria for general candidates and 45 for SC/ST candidates, as per the then AICTE norms. However, recently, the AICTE revised the cut-off to 45 per cent for general candidates and 40 per cent for SC/ST candidates for engineering courses.

"Had we not challenged the eligibility criteria, candidates scoring between 45 to 50 per cent would not have been able to sit for the entrance test. As a result, the recent change in AICTE norms would not have benefited them," the OPECA secretary said. Notably, the HC in its interim order on March 23, allowed students scoring below 50 per cent to sit for the entrance examination.

In view of the court order, the OPECA demanded that the government should intervene to ensure that the deemed universities outside the OJEE purview also implement the AICTE norms.