Bhubaneswar, Sept. 18: Vacant MBBS seats in all medical colleges in the state have forced the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination authorities to conduct a second round of counselling.
This is the first time ever that a second round counselling session is being held for MBBS seats, said a senior official of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE).
The second round of counselling for nearly 200 vacant MBBS seats will be held on September 23 and 24.
However, the OJEE authorities have decided to go for centralised counselling this time. The authorities had for the first time introduced web-based counselling for medical seats on July 17.
Thirty MBBS seats have remained vacant in the three state-run medical colleges and 10 each in SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, VSS medical college in Burla and MKCG Berhampur.
Also, 66 MBBS seats are lying vacant in private colleges such as the Hi-Tech medical college with its branches in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Similarly, 14 BDS seats are lying vacant in SCB dental college, Cuttack, besides 78 vacant seats in private colleges.
“All the interested rank holders in the medical stream will be allowed to take part in this central counselling. The allotment will be made on the basis of the general rank of the candidates and following reservation rules,” said OJEE secretary Priyabrata Sahoo.
“The counselling session will be held in IIIT Bhubaneswar located at Gothapatna,” he said. First round of counselling for medical stream under OJEE 2012 was conducted on July 17.
The process had been delayed because of the non-conformation of the seat matrix by the Medical Council of India.
This year, 96,617 students had taken the joint entrance exam, of whom 2,800 qualified for the OJEE medical admission this year.
The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar that began functioning this year also had to conduct two rounds of counselling to fill up its 50 seats.
Official sources have attributed the vacancies to students choosing to study in institutes at other states and the large number of career alternatives.
The state government is planning to increase the MBBS seats in all the government colleges from the current seat intake of 150 to 250. Every year, OJEE holds counselling for three state-run colleges with 150 seats each and the Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital Bhubaneswar with 100 seats. An additional 100 MBBS seats were added this year at Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital, Rourkela, raising the number of medial seats under OJEE to 650.
The Gandhi Dental College in Bhubaneswar and SCB Dental College in Cuttack, with 50 seats each, also admit students through the OJEE.
