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OPECA and the State still at loggerheads

BHUBANESWAR: The much-awaited meeting between the Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) and the State Government to resolve the issue of admission into private engineering colleges could not take place on Friday.

The meeting was to be held hours after the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing on the issue till July 29.

While Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) authorities which coordinates admissions into medical and engineering colleges in the State said it would go ahead with counselling process as per the schedule, the OPECA warned that the counselling to be conducted from Saturday would not be final.

The OPECA meanwhile announced that it would start taking students at college-level against the seats that would be lying vacant due to inadequate number of students belonging to Non Resident Indians (NRI).

However, according to the Orissa Professional Educational Institution (regulation of admission and fixation of fee) Act, 2007, JEE authorities are supposed to conduct re-counselling for the vacant seats.

The OPECA Secretary Binod Das said, “The Orissa High Court had allowed the private engineering colleges that they could take students against vacant seats.” JEE authorities said during next five days students coming through All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) would be asked to sit in the counselling and they had not received any Government directive on the issue.

“There are several contentious issues those remained unaddressed. While the Government is insisting the fee structure will remain unchanged for a period of seven years, we want that period to be reduced to four years,” he said.

In the afternoon, the OPECA representatives were scheduled to meet the State Government officials. However, the representatives left the Secretariat as the meeting was delayed by an hour.

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