Bhubaneswar, July 14: Centralised manual counselling for admission into medical courses began this morning at the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) here.
Candidates, who have secured ranks between one and 560 under Orissa Joint entrance Examination (OJEE)-2011, turned up at the venue today. Many of them found the process to be “highly disorganised” and “chaotic”.
“My rank card said that my counselling would start at 11:45am but nothing seems to be running as per schedule. It is already 1pm and we have not heard from the authorities yet. There is no drinking water facility and the toilet has been sealed off,” said Markandaiya Acharya, an aspirant, who was standing in the queue.
“When we were initially told our counselling would be over in a day or two, we were happy. Today, I reached a bit early and found out it is totally disorganised. There is no seating arrangement for guardians, no water. First we were standing in the scorching sun and now it is drizzling,” said aspirant Akanksha Mohanty, who was standing behind Markandaiya.
“There is no notice board to show in what order the students are supposed to queue up. My rank card says my counselling will start at 2:30pm but I am not sure how long I would have to wait,” said another candidate, Ipsa Kujur.
However, the authorities on the spot refuted these allegations.
“We have made seating arrangements for all candidates along with one of their guardians. But most students have turned up with two guardians each,” said an official.
By late afternoon, most seats in government medical colleges had been filled up, said Sitaram Mohapatra, vice-chairman of OJEE committee and joint director of medical education and training.
“There are 150 MBBS seats each in three of the government colleges of the state and most of them have been filled up today itself. In Hi-Tech Medical College (private), there are 100 MBBS and 100 BDS (dental) seats. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has asked us to complete the first round of counselling by July 17 and start classes from August 1,” Mohapatra said.
During the counselling process, they have to get the necessary documents verified and pay a counselling fee of Rs 450. For a government college, a part admission fee of Rs 16,000 and for a private institution, pay Rs 30,000 in the form of a demand draft in favour of OJEE-2011 has to be paid by a candidate. The candidates have to report at the allotted colleges between July 21 and 27.
Students with ranks 561 to 2203 have been asked to report at CET for the second and final day of counselling on Friday. There are 550 MBBS seats and 117 BDS seats in the colleges under OJEE-2011.
