Bhubaneswar, June 22: The process of e-counselling for rank holders of Orissa Joint Entrance Examinations (OJEE)-2011 will begin from July 3, industries secretary T. Ramachandru, announced today.

This year, 18 such centres will be established as against 16 set up last year at 11 places across the state, namely Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Baripada, Saranga, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Berhampur, Jeypore, Bhawanipatna and Keonjhar. The centres will open from 9 am to 5 pm.

“Eighteen nodal centres will open three days before the counselling commences and will function as helpline centres for the students, parents or guardians who have queries regarding the process,” Ramachandru said.

“This time, special importance has been given to candidates from KBK (Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput) districts by opening a nodal centre in Bhawanipatna in addition to the one existing in Jeypore,” vice-chairman of OJEE committee, Sitaram Mohapatra, said.

Rank cards and counselling brochures have been dispatched to each candidate. The brochure contains all details of government and private colleges in the state, courses being offered by them, tuition fee, seat matrix, categories of reservation and complete procedure of e-counselling.

The students can create a password for themselves on the OJEE website, www.ojee.nic.in, and make a list of their preferred colleges and courses. To protect the password from being hacked, the candidates will be asked for certain personal details such as date of birth, roll number and application number, which they have to keep confidential.

When the counselling begins, a verification process will be conducted for about three weeks. During this period, candidates have to furnish only photocopies of the documents. They can also make changes in their list of options and then “lock” their final choice of colleges and courses at the nodal centre.

Two printouts of their list will be generated on the spot, which will be signed by both the candidate and nodal officer. Each will keep a copy of this authenticated document so that there is no scope for manipulation through hacking of the password. A counselling fee of Rs 500 in the form of a demand draft has to be paid by each student.

After allotment of colleges and branches is made, the candidate operating from any location has to make an online payment on a particular bank account number provided on the JEE website. For government colleges, the fee is Rs 16,000 and for private colleges, it is Rs 30,000.

On this basis, a list of final allotment for the applicants who have deposited the money will be generated.

The candidates will be given a week’s time to report to the colleges. The seats of the “non-reporting” students will be allotted to the next eligible candidate through an “automatic upgradation” facility till two or three rounds of allotment.

An additional five per cent seats in all technical colleges affiliated to the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), will be reserved for students belonging to economically weaker sections. A separate merit list will be generated for them. “The 1,900 to 2,000 seats will be supernumerary, which is beyond the 38,000-odd seats approved by the AICTE,” Mohapatra said.

Around 1,500 personnel (all government employees) will be posted at the 18 centres. Each centre will have a nodal officer, verification officer, technical officer from National Informatics Centre (NIC) and supporting staff. The NIC will develop the counselling software.

For the first time, JEE authorities will deploy a coordinator and security staff at each place.

A monitoring squad will inspect the centres on a daily basis. The local police will also be pressed into service during the counselling session, said Mohapatra.