Bhubaneswar, Sept. 3: The second phase of web counselling for the Orissa Joint Entrance Examination Engineering (OJEE) has kicked off with the counselling for pharmacy beginning today.

This phase would include counselling for the vacant seats in engineering, MBA, MCA, pharmacy, and lateral entry (engineering). Following the first round of counselling, about 14,500 engineering seats were allotted by the OJEE yesterday. Classes for these students would begin on September 7.

Nearly 25,000 of the total of around 38,000 seats in engineering were lying vacant. In MBA, 3,500 of the available 5,157 seats were yet to be filled up and for MCA, 2,000 of the 3,188 seats were still empty.

“The second phase of counselling begins today and will continue till September 18,” said Sitaram Mohapatra, vice-chairman of the OJEE committee. However, classes for students who got admitted in the first round of counselling would commence from September 7, he said.

In the second phase of counselling, the candidates were required to go through the same procedure as they did in the first phase – appear at the 23 nodal centres for choice locking and document verification.

The counselling for pharmacy began today and would continue till tomorrow. For MBA and MCA, counselling would be held on September 5 and 6, for lateral entry in engineering, September 7 and 8 and for engineering courses, from September 9 to 11.

The provisional seat allotment results would be published on September 6 for pharmacy, September 10 for MBA and MCA, September 11 for lateral entry in engineering and September 14 for engineering courses.

Counselling for the 30 enhanced seats in dental science courses at SCB Medical College, Cuttack, and four vacant MBBS seats would take place on September 12 and 13. Of the four vacancies, two are in SCB Medical College and one each at VSS Medical College, Burla and MKCG Medical College, Berhampur. “Another 63 seats in dental science at Hi-Tech Medical College are yet to be filled up. Seats surrendered by the CBSE would be added under OJEE medical seats,” Mohapatra said.

Counselling for the enhanced medical seats would take place at the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar.

“The admission this year has reached an all time low,” said Orissa Private Engineering College Association secretary Binod Dash. “If the government allows a free hand to colleges, 15,000 more seats can be filled up. The process of OJEE counselling over two months has been cumbersome confusing both parents and students,” he said.

There is an immediate need to change the Orissa Professional Education Institutions Act that was framed when the demand was more than supply. Now that the situation has reversed, the Act should be changed accordingly,” Dash said.