Bhubaneswar, June 9: The Orissa Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) Committee is trying to make the e-counselling process “smooth, transparent and user-friendly”.

The e-counselling system, introduced last year, had led to chaos and delay in commencement of classes in the earlier academic session. However, OJEE Committee’s vice-chairman Sitaram Mohapatra has assured that all shortcomings would be taken care of this time. The counselling session is scheduled to start from the second week of July.

Here’s all that the candidates need to know about the e-counselling process:

A rank card and a counselling brochure would be dispatched to each candidate by speed post. The brochure would contain all details of government and private colleges in the state, courses being offered by them, tuition fees, seat matrix, categories of reservation and complete procedures of e-counselling.

The candidates, from any part of the world, can visit www.ojee.nic.in and create a password for themselves. To protect the password from being hacked, the candidates would be asked for certain personal/confidential details such as date of birth, roll number, application number, which will work as security questions. Then, the candidate can create a list of any number of colleges and branches of his/her choice.

The aspirants would be asked to visit their nearest nodal centres when the e-counselling session begins. This year, 18 such centres would be established, as against 16 set up last year, at 11 places across the state — Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Baripada, Saranga, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Berhampur, Jeypore, Bhawanipatna and Keonjhar.

“This time, we have given special importance to the candidates from the KBK (Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput) districts by opening a nodal centre at Bhawanipatna, in addition to the one existing at Jeypore,” Mohapatra said.

Around 1,500 government employees would be posted in 18 centres across the state. Each centre would have a nodal officer, a verification officer, and a technical officer from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) along with other supporting staff. The NIC would develop the counselling software.

The nodal centres would function as helpline centres for the first three days. Students, parents, or guardians, who have any doubts regarding the counselling method, can approach the officials here. The centres would be open from 9am to 5pm.

After these three days, a verification process would go on for 15 to 20 days. During this period, the candidates will have to furnish only the photocopies of their documents. They will also be able to make changes to their list of options.

Post verification, the applicants will have to “lock” their final choice of colleges and courses at the nodal centres. Two print-outs of their list would be generated on the spot, which would be signed both by the candidate and the nodal officer. Each would keep a copy of this authenticated document so that there is no scope for manipulation. A counselling fee of Rs 500 in the form of a demand draft has to be paid by student.

On the basis of this list, colleges and branches would be allotted. The candidate, operating from any location, has to make a payment through a “banker’s gateway” (online payment on a particular bank account number provided on the OJEE website). For government colleges, the fee is Rs 16,000 and for private colleges, it is Rs 30,000.

The money would not go to any colleges. Instead, JEE authorities would operate the account. After the money is deposited, a list of candidates, who are interested for admission into the colleges allotted to them, would be generated. “This list would give an idea of how many students are actually interested for admission and how many have opted for institutions outside the state,” said Mohapatra.

On this basis, a “final allotment” for the applicants, who have deposited the money, would be made. They would be given seven days’ time to report to the colleges. “Here too, they would be required to produce only the photocopies of their documents and retain the originals. This would ensure that the students do not remain bound to these colleges and can switch over to other institutions of their choice,” Mohapatra said.

The seats of the “non-reporting” students would be allotted to the next eligible candidate. Further, the rank of a student would be automatically upgraded if a candidate placed above him/her fails to report within these seven days. This will give the students a better chance to get the college and subject of his/her choice. There would be automatic upgrade till two or three rounds of allotment.

For the first time, the OJEE authorities would deploy a coordinator and security staff at each place. A monitoring squad would inspect the centres on a daily basis. The local police would also be pressed into service during the counselling session, said Mohapatra.

In case of mismanagement and chaos at a nodal centre, applicants can register their complaints with the OJEE authorities in four ways — calling the helpline number (0674-2352456), sending a fax to 0674-2352457, using web facility (www.odishajee.com) or sending a post to the JEE cell at Gandamunda, Bhubaneswar.

“There will be constant supervision. Students can expect immediate response if they face any trouble at the nodal centres. Moreover, facilities for drinking water and resting shade would also be provided,” he said.

As per the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines, the classes in medical colleges are slated to begin from Aug 1. In non-medical institutions, classes are expected to start from September 1 as specified by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). In order to meet these deadlines, a counselling calendar would soon be released.

After the admissions, vacancies would be filled up through spot counselling at Bhubaneswar. “As per the vacant seat matrix, we would ask students, who have failed to secure a seat, for their choices and conduct on-the-spot web counselling for them. Their list would be released after that,” he added.

This year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has issued guidelines to all technical colleges affiliated to it to waive the tuition fee of nearly 1,900 to 2,000 students belonging to economically weaker sections.

“It is mandatory for all colleges to reserve at least five per cent of their seats for those students whose parents’ annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh. A separate merit list would be generated for them. The 1,900 to 2,000 seats would be supernumerary, that is beyond the 38,000-odd seats approved by the AICTE,” the OJEE vice-chairman said.

The state has 107 engineering colleges, of which private authorities run 93. Out of a total seat strength of 37,839, about 18,000 seats went unoccupied in the last academic session, despite conducting two joint entrance examinations.

E-counselling, introduced last year, had left several students in the lurch, as there were certain confusions and technical snags in the system. This had led to a delay in commencement of classes. However, the state has assured that the defects, which marred the admission procedure last year, would be rectified this time.