Bhubaneswar, Nov. 25: The policy planning board of the state industries department has recommended that private engineering colleges of Odisha be allowed to conduct their own counselling sessions for admission next year onwards. Till now, a common counselling procedure was in place for government and private institutions.

In another move, the board has also suggested that the medical entrance exam under the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) be discontinued. Medical aspirants would need to appear for a common, all-India test called National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The Medical Council of India has entrusted the responsibility of conducting the test to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

With this, separate lists would be published for every state and the candidates would be selected on the basis of their performance and given admission in different medical colleges, including the private ones. The proposal for a separate counselling for private engineering colleges was presented last evening in response to the Odisha Private Engineering Colleges Association (Opeca)’s appeal to find a solution to the increasing number of vacancies in most engineering colleges every year.

However, the colleges would be allowed to pick only those candidates, who appear for the OJEE or the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), for admission.

An OJEE official said that a sub-committee would be given the responsibility of conducting the counselling for admission into government engineering colleges. “The proposal is under the consideration of the government. We will discuss and finalise the modalities only after it is accepted,” said the official.

Opeca secretary and a board member, Binod Dash said, though the association had earlier requested the state government to allow the private colleges to fill up at least 50 per cent of their seats through direct admission, the board did not give them the nod.

“However, the board had recommended to the government to allow us to conduct a counselling session at our level to fill up the vacant seats. We could have filled up the seats by drawing students from Odisha as well as other states through marketing. More than 12,000 outstation candidates take the OJEE every year but the number of seats that are reserved for them is disproportionately low,” he said. According to yesterday’s proposal, a private college would be free to choose what percentage of students will be get admission directly, he added.