About 3,100 candidates have been allotted seats in engineering colleges during the second phase of counselling on Wednesday conducted by the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE).
The State Government had issued a directive to conduct second phase of counselling to fill up the large number of vacant seats in the engineering colleges.
The OJEE officials said more than 27,000 seats had remained vacant after the first round of counselling. After the completion of second round, number of vacant seats still is at an all-time high.
The sanctioned strength in government colleges is more than 3,000 seats and in private engineering colleges, it is more than 42,300 seats. The number of vacant seats, even after second round of counselling in the engineering colleges, is more than 23,500. This is more than half of the sanctioned strength of all engineering colleges. The problem of vacant seats is mostly faced by private colleges. The government colleges though had no problem in filling up their seats. Officials said the reason behind the large number of vacancies in engineering colleges is indiscriminate increase in the number of private colleges. The B.Arch course was not included in the counselling due to a stay order issued by the High Court. The two government institutes in the State, which offer B.Arch course, are faced with huge number of vacant seats. The CET has about 30 vacant seats in its B.Arch programme and VSSUT has about 58 vacant seats in same programme. The seats in B.Arch programme remained vacant as students did not have National Aptitude Test in Architecture score, which is mandatory for taking admission in it.