Calcutta, July 7: The state joint entrance examination board was caught unawares yesterday when several students and guardians protested as counselling of candidates closed sooner than expected.

The authorities closed counselling at the Ashutosh Birth Centenary Hall as all 12,000-plus seats in 54 engineering institutions had been filled up.

This was unlike the last few years when counselling was held for more students than initially planned as the engineering seats did not have enough takers, with several meritorious students heading for other states to study.

Higher education department officials are happy. “The seats got filled up before time this year for a number of reasons. But this year’s trend is definitely an indication that fewer students are going to other states for engineering education,” said an official of the department.

In the past few years, candidates with ranks till at least 24,000 have been called for counselling. However, the list had to be stretched ? till as much as 30,000 last year ? as several candidates did not attend the counselling.

This year, the counselling that began on June 22 was to continue till today. Candidates ranked between 22,000 and 26,000 on the merit list were called for counselling yesterday and all the 12,000-plus seats in the 54 institutions were filled up by candidates within the rank of 22,601, officials said.