Bhubaneswar, July 14: The counselling process for admission in various medical colleges in the state began today.

Eighty-five per cent of the total seats in medical colleges of Odisha are reserved for domicile candidates and will be filled up through counselling by the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE). The rest will be open for all-India candidates to be selected through centralised counselling.

All the NEET-qualified state candidates who wish to take part in the counselling procedure for admission must register on the website www. ojee.nic.in. The process will continue till 5pm on July 17.

The candidate will have to attend the document verification session and get the online application authenticated. Verification of necessary documents for admission will be undertaken at nodal centres from July 18 to 21. The first round of seat allotment list will be declared on July 2 followed by choice filling and locking on July 22 and July 23, respectively. First phase of admission of students will be done at nodal centres from July 25 to 31.

The candidate must report before the authority of the institution allotted with in stipulated date as notified and submit a copy of the provisional admission letter for completion of admission process at institutional level.

"We have set up four helplines to answer the queries of applicants. We are also available on e-mails. Allotment will be made on the basis of merit list of state prepared by the OJEE and depending onthe choice of subject and college locked by the candidate," said OJEE chairman Tushar Kumar Nath.

If at the end of counselling vacancy still exists due to any reason the OJEE may notify a spot counselling.