Bhubaneswar, Sept. 23: The handful of medical and dental seats that were vacant in the government colleges this year, were almost filled up in the second round of medical counselling that commenced today.

Only a few reserved category seats are yet to find takers.

“All the 30 vacant seats for general students, 10 each at SCB in Cuttack, VSS in Burla and MKCG in Berhampur, were filled today. So have all the 14 dental seats at SCB. A few seats for SC and ST students are still open for counselling,” said Priyabrat Sahoo, secretary of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) committee, which holds the engineering and medical entrance tests in the state.

A little over 200 medical seats in both government and private colleges had fallen vacant at the end of the first round of web-based counselling in July. This forced the OJEE authorities to conduct another round of counselling. This time, it is being done centrally at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar, and would end tomorrow.

The Bhubaneswar branch of the private-run Hi-Tech Medical College still has 13 MBBS seats, including seven for general candidates, and 77 dental seats to be filled up. Though the Rourkela branch has an intake capacity of 100, 85 were on offer because of a Orissa High Court case. Here, 30 seats (26 for general students) are open for counselling. Similarly, two seats under the Western Odisha Development Council are still vacant.

This year, 96,617 students had taken the joint entrance exam, of whom, 2,800 qualified for the OJEE medical admission.