Bhubaneswar, June 2: The state government will begin counselling for engineering admissions on the basis of JEE Main ranks from the second week of June.

The state government is set to introduce new rules in line with the format followed by the IITs and NITs for the counselling process in engineering admissions. In January, the state government had announced that the guidelines would be implemented from this academic session.

According to the new guidelines, the JEE Main-qualified candidates will be able to register themselves and lock choices on the website of Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE), following which temporary seats would be allotted to them.

"We have made some changes. Till last year, everyone had to come to nodal centres for document verification without knowing if seats would be allotted to them. But now, after the temporary allotment, they can deposit the fees. They can also opt out if they are not happy," said OJEE chairman Tushar Nath.

To take part in the counselling, the candidates will have to deposit fees of Rs 25,000 in the nodal centres set up by OJEE. As many as 24 nodal centres have been set up across the state.

The deposited fees will remain with OJEE till the completion of the last phase of admissions. The final list of admission will be published only after completion of the third phase of counselling.

Students will have to pay the remaining amount to the colleges where they get enrolled. Students can also opt for automatic upgrade after each round of seat allotment.

Besides engineering, counselling for other streams, such as business administration, ayurvedic and homoeopathy, will also begin by mid-June.

Plus Two admissions

The state government released notification for admission into Plus Three colleges in the state today.

Applicants will have to fill up the common application form (CAF) for admission, take a printout and deposit it at any of the Student Admission Management System (SAMS) resource centres set up by the government across the state.

As many as 502 centres has been set up and details of the centres are available in the higher education department website. Students can also fill in the CAF manually at the SAMS resource centres.

Also, students can contact the Sanjog toll-free helpline number for information. Forms will be made available from June 6.

The last date for applying online is June 20 while offline applications can be submitted till June 21. The first round of merit list will be published on June 28. Classes for Plus Three will begin from June 19.