Cuttack, Aug. 3: Orissa High Court today directed the state government to hold a special Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE), 2017, to fill up the vacant BTech (engineering) seats for the 2017-18 academic year.

The court issued the order after the Odisha Private Engineering Colleges' Association (Opeca) sought its intervention as the admission hit an all-time low this year with approximately 4,600 candidates taking admission into private engineering colleges in the state.

"The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice K.R. Mohapatra directed the state government to conduct the Special OJEE, 2017, to fill up the seats lying vacant in the reserved category," Opeca counsel Devi Prasad Dash told The Telegraph.

The court directed the state government to invite applications from candidates for the special OJEE on August 5, hold the examination on August 10 and complete the process of admission by August 14.

"The court in its direction made it clear that general category candidates shall be allowed to sit for the special OJEE," Dash said.

Under the state government policy, 66 per cent of the seats for BTech courses reserved for various candidates, which includes 30 per cent for women, eight per cent for scheduled castes, 12 per cent for scheduled tribes, five per cent for green card holders, three per cent for physically challenged, three per cent for ex-servicemen and five per cent for students with tuition fee waiver.

"There are around 50,000 seats in 88 private engineering colleges. Around 4,600 candidates have taken admission so far. With the high court allowing our plea for the special OJEE, we expect another 4,000 to 5,000 to take admission," Opeca secretary Binod Dash told The Telegraph.

"The state government has been conducting special OJEE for the last three years and we have been successful in getting more than 4,000 students in this manner," Dash said.

While issuing the direction for Special OJEE today the court endorsed the contention of Opeca that it was the obligation of the state government to fix modalities for filling up the vacant seats.

Cricket hurdle

Hopes of cricket lovers in Odisha to enjoy a T-20 match at their home ground Barabati Stadium were dashed as Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) today said it would not be able to organise the match scheduled for November 4 due to bali yatra festival.