Bhubaneswar, June 2: The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has accorded approval to 82 technical colleges of the state for the 2013-14 academic session.

On the other hand, eight colleges have been denied approval, which include two institutes that have been allowed to close down.

Bhubaneswar based institutes — The International Institute of Engineering and Technology at Bomikhal and the Koustuv Institute of Technology at Chandrashekharpur — had approached the state government and the AICTE to allow them to down their shutters citing shortage of students.

The six colleges that have been denied approval are the Regional College of Management, Vikash College of Engineering for Women, Koustav Institute of Self Domain, Ekalavya College of Science and Technology, College of Engineering and the Bhubaneswar College of Engineering. Recognition has been withdrawn for various reasons, including lack of adequate infrastructure and insufficient manpower.

The list of approved colleges will be made available on the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) website very soon in order to help students take the right decision, said OJEE secretary Priyabrata Sahoo.

“Students must be cautious before choosing their colleges. They must thoroughly check the details of the college and take a decision,” said the technical education minister Pratap Keshari Deb while issuing a caution to private colleges not to dupe gullible students.

“Strict action will be taken against colleges who resort to fraudulent means to dupe students,” he said.

The OJEE counselling is scheduled to begin in the second week of June.

“We were apprehensive about the chances of sticking to the schedule of the academic calendar following the delay in the AICTE approval list but it is now over,” said a senior official of the technical education department.

“The important thing is that we can now stick to the non-negotiable academic calendar designed for the BPUT,” he said.

As many as 95,278 students have qualified the OJEE 2013 and will undergo counselling this year.

They include 62,157 students who will be trying for 42,000 engineering seats, 7,062 students for 15,000 MBA seats and 2,584 students who will be trying for 10,000 MCA seats.