Second OJEE in Odisha every year

Bhubaneswar: In what could be a major relief for thousands of students as well as the private engineering colleges across the State, the Odisha Skill Development and Technical Education Department today shot a letter to the Chairman of OJEE Committee to conduct a Second/Special OJEE in the State every year.

In the letter, the Joint Secretary mentioned that Second/Special OJEE was held during the year 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 as per the orders of the Orissa High Court for admission into vacant seats of B.Tech.(Engineering), Lateral Entry B.Tech., MCA, MBA courses in the State.

The letter further mentioned that the State government is planning to come out with a practical and workable solution to the long standing issue of filling up of vacant seats in private Engineering Colleges of Odisha for coming years.

As per sources, the matter was discussed in the Policy Planning Body (PPB) meeting held on September 25 last year and it was referred to the Government for consideration.

After careful consideration of the Order of the Orissa High Court and provisions of Section- 3 (1) of the Odisha Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission & Fixation of Fee) Amendment Act, 2016, it has been decided that a Second/ Special OJEE shall be held every year at centres covering all the 30 districts preferably in the month of June or July for admission into vacant seats of first year B.Tech., Lateral Entry B.Tech., MBA and MCA in order to provide an opportunity to the students of interior, rural and tribal areas who fail to apply or appear JEE (Main) conducted by the CBSE.

This apart, it stated that the detailed schedule of the Entrance Test shall be fixed and notified by the OJEE Committee.