Advance fee plan to check vacancies in government engineering colleges

Bhubaneswar: In order to fill the vacant seats, the Odisha government is contemplating asking students to pay a portion of their fees during counseling for admission into government-run engineering colleges.

A meeting in this regard was held under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner R. Balakrishnan at the state secretariat here on Tuesday.

The technical education department has proposed charging Rs 30,000 towards part-admission fee during counseling to eliminate unwilling candidates, ultimately bringing down the number of vacancies in government-run colleges.

This sum will have to be deposited after the provisional allotment of seats and the remaining amount can be deposited during the actual admission process.

“It was a preliminary discussion. We are analyzing the modules of different states to address the vacant seat problems in government engineering colleges,” said Sanjay Singh, the technical education secretary.

Chairman of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE), counsellingTushar Nath said they are working out on the proposal.

Despite high demand for admission into these colleges, several seats are vacated following last minute exit of candidates. These candidates – often with good scores – leave to join top tech institutes such as IITs and NITs.

By counseling for admission into government colleges is completed and the seats that might otherwise have been filled up by deserving candidates remain vacant for the course.

According to sources, in the past four years, 20 per cent seats in government-run institutions remained vacant on an average.

In an attempt to address this issue, the government now wants to make sure that they conduct counselling only for students who are serious about taking admissions.