Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: The Orissa Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) authorities have decided to give another opportunity to the aspirants belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories to modify their choices of colleges and courses.

The process for the first round of allotment started on August 19. According to the updated schedule for the web-based counselling process for engineering courses, the SC and ST students, who have not been allotted seats so far, can modify their choices between August 20 to 23.

Similarly, aspirants belonging to these categories, who have not registered themselves yet, can participate in the choice-locking process on August 24 and 25. For this purpose, these candidates are required to report at one of the 23 nodal centres set up across the state.

“We have decided to give a second chance to the SC and ST students with a view to minimise the chances of a large number of seats remaining vacant in the colleges. Moreover, we would allow those candidates, who have failed to participate in the choice-locking process owing to certain reasons, to be part of the OJEE admission process,” said Priyabrat Sahu, secretary of the OJEE committee.

The intermediate round of seat allotment for the candidates belonging to the SC and ST categories would be conducted on August 28. The newly allotted candidates are then required to deposit the part admission fee at a nodal centre between September 3 to 6.

Despite measures to fill up as many seats as possible, there is a great possibility of more than 15,000 seats remaining vacant in the engineering colleges this year.

The process of choice locking and document verification of the candidates was completed on August 1, but the final seat allotment process had been delayed following a stay order on admissions regarding the eligibility norms.

The All India Council for Technical Education had fixed the minimum qualifying mark for admissions at 45 per cent for general category students and 40 per cent for those belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe. This was challenged by the Orissa Private Engineering College Association in Orissa High Court.

Earlier, any student, who had passed Plus Two science, was eligible for taking admission under OJEE. However, the high court upheld the council’s decision on August 19.