Cuttack: The Odisha Private Engineering College Association (Opeca) is worried over the state government's delay in taking a decision regarding filling up of vacant seats in BTech courses.

Opeca secretary Binod Dash said on Wednesday that over the past five years 60 per cent of the seats had been lying vacant, but last year it had gone up to over 75 per cent.

On August 3, 2017, Orissa High Court had directed the state government to come up with a workable solution to the long standing issue of filling up of vacant seats of self-finance engineering colleges.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in its Approval Process Handbook 2018-19 has empowered state governments and Union Territories to decide the modalities for admissions.

"Taking into consideration the high court order and AICTE provision, the Opeca had submitted a proposal to the state government more than a month ago. But no decision has followed till date," Dash said.

"We are keen about an immediate positive decision as there shall be no requirement of conducting special OJEE if the state government implements or allows our proposal," the Opeca secretary said.

Opeca's memorandum submitted to commissioner-cum-secretary skill development & technical education department Sanjay Singh on January 6 proposed that after two rounds of OJEE counselling all vacant seats be handed over to the colleges to be filled with JEE (Main) and other state JEE and state deemed university rank holders. The seats would also be open to non-JEE candidates with 45 per cent marks, which is the eligibility criteria fixed by the government.

Until 2013, admissions to BTech courses in engineering colleges were done through the OJEE. However, the state government joined the JEE (Main), a common all-India engineering entrance test, from 2014. Since then the Opeca has been seeking the high court's intervention for filling up vacant seats in private engineering colleges after admissions on the basis of JEE (Main).