Bhubaneswar, July 24: The Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) has urged the state government to extend the choice locking deadline for the ongoing Orissa Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE)-2011 counselling to July 31.

Through a notification on July 19, thousands of candidates were asked to report to their nearest nodal centres on July 20 and 21 for choice locking. As a result of this short notice, several candidates from outside the state missed out on this important process.

“Many rank holders from other states were extremely harassed since there was no way they could reach the nodal centres on a few hours’ notice. We have submitted a written request to the government to allow such candidates to report for choice locking on any day till July 31. Notifications in this regard must be issued through mass media,” Opeca secretary, Binod Dash said.

The association has further requested for transfer of all vacant seats under general category to “outside state category”. As per OJEE rules, only 10 per cent of the 40,000-odd engineering seats are reserved for candidates from other states.

“More than 14,200 candidates from outside Orissa have qualified OJEE-2011. Assuming only 4,000 of the total seats are available for them, over 10,200 students would not get a seat. Of the 4,000 students who are allotted a seat, many of them might not take admissions if they don’t get an institute of their choice. If general category seats are not transferred to them, there would be large-scale vacancy like last year,” said Dash.

Dash said the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has reduced NRI quota in technical colleges from 15 to five per cent which “violates a Supreme Court judgment of 2007”. In May, Orissa High Court passed an interim order for NRI seats to be 15 per cent, out of which five per cent may be filled through OJEE counselling and rest shall not be filled up by any category of candidates until further notice.