The West Bengal government on Wednesday said the centralised admission portal for enrolment in higher educational institutions for undergraduate courses, is expected to be launched within a week.

State Education Minister Bratya Basu said due to some technical work, the launch has been delayed by a few days.

The portal is a single-window online platform for admission to 16 universities and 461 government and government-aided affiliated colleges. It provides students the opportunity to choose from hundreds of courses, officials said.

"If you remember, last year the online portal opened on June 19. And, the higher secondary exam results were announced on May 8. So if you compare with the proceedings last year, we are not late," Basu told reporters here.

The higher secondary results were published on May 7 this year.

About the guidelines regarding reservation under the OBC quota for candidates, he said, "Everything will be done as per law, in accordance with the high court order to this effect in the past." In a related development, the Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) on Wednesday urged the varsity authorities to initiate the process of admission to the UG, PG and PhD programmes without further delay.

"As there is no specific order from the higher education department of the state government regarding OBC reservation, JUTA urges the authority to publish the admission notification, keeping the scope of OBC reservation open...,” JUTA president Partha Pratim Biswas said in a statement.

The Calcutta High Court had in May 23, 2024 cancelled all OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010. The state subsequently made an appeal to the Supreme Court against the order, and several hearings have taken place in connection with the matter in recent times.

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