Bhubaneswar, Dec. 11: The state government has decided to opt for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains for engineering admissions in the state next year, technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma said here today.

"For the next academic year, we have decided to conduct JEE Mains for admission to first year BTech in all colleges of the state," the minister said.

The government took the decision after consultations with the law department and the advocate general, Surya Prasad Mishra.

The department has also proposed an amendment to the Odisha Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007. It has proposed changes in section 3 of the act.

This section of the act reads: "Subject to the provisions of this Act, admission of students in all private professional educational institutions, Government institutions and professional sponsored institutions to all seats, including lateral entry seats, shall be made through JEE conducted by the Policy Planning Body followed by centralised counselling in order of merit, in accordance with such procedure as recommended by the said body and approved by the Government."

The act favours conduct of an entrance test by the state government for engineering admissions.

It has been repeatedly used by private colleges to file petitions in the courts, forcing the department to conduct entrance examinations such as the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination, special OJEE or second JEE. This year too, the private colleges had been demanding holding of OJEE instead of JEE Mains. They had argued that introducing JEE Mains since the past two years had brought down engineering admissions to an all time low.

Owners of these colleges have also been blaming the state government for allowing private universities to admit students by conducting their own entrance tests.

There are a total of 101 engineering colleges in the state with around 45,000 seats. This year, only 18,000 of these seats were filled up. While 27,500 seats had remained vacant in 2014, nearly 23,000 seats remained vacant in 2013.

This year the private colleges, under the banner of Odisha Private Engineering Colleges' Association, had approached Orissa High Court demanding a special OJEE for candidates who did not appear in JEE Mains.

They claimed that many students from interior parts of the state continue to remain unaware of JEE Mains and its procedures. The association alleged that the state government did nothing to publicise the new format, which has led to a fall in engineering admissions.