Bhubaneswar, March 24: The state government will conduct counselling for 85 per cent seats in all medical colleges of Odisha, including the private and deemed universities, from the current academic session.

A notification issued by the Union health ministry recently made it mandatory for all states to conduct common counselling for admissions to all MBBS and BDS courses - even in private and deemed institutes - from 2017-18.

But, the state government had not specified how they were going to go about it.

Clearing the air, the health department has notified the skill development and technical education department that the private and deemed colleges can conduct counselling for only 15 per cent of the seats.

The directorate of medical education and training will conduct the counselling for admission to the medical colleges in the state, along with the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE).

Till last year, the deemed universities had complete control over the admission process, while the state government conducted counselling for few seats at the private colleges. But, the state government has said that a common counselling will streamline the admission process.

"As we have received instructions from the central government, we will implement it to bring transparency in the admission process. We have informed the concerned departments including the OJEE and the directorate authorities that they will act accordingly," said additional secretary of the health department Surjit Das.

Experts have welcomed the common merit-based counselling opining that it will bring an end to the exorbitant fee for MBBS courses, charged by the private medical colleges and deemed universities.

"This is the best opportunity for the state government to implement the step. It will be extremely beneficial for the students," said educator Pritish Acharya.

The move is expected to bring uniformity not only in the admission process, but also in the course fees with the state government deciding on the latter. Several private medical colleges and deemed universities across the state had hiked their course fees last year to compensate for the loss of capitation fees.

"Before the start of the counselling process, we will inform the students and the institutes about the fee structure," said OJEE chairman Tushar Kumar Nath.

Of the 1,000 medical seats available across the state, 650 are in government colleges.