Over 25,000 seats in Odisha polytechnic, diploma institutes to fall vacant this year!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, July 1:

More than 25,000 seats in the 30 government and 100 private diploma and polytechnic institutes in Odisha are likely to fall vacant in the current academic year, informed sources said.

According to sources, a total of 45,325 students have been selected for admission in these institutes in the first phase. These students will take admission in the allotted institutes from July 1 to July 5.

However, out of nearly 47,000 students, who have secured ranks in the just concluded Diploma Entrance Test (DET), only 19,556 students have gone for choice locking . Of these as many as 18,535 students have been allotted seats.

As a result, more than 28,000 seats have fallen vacant.

There are a total of 37,320 seats in the private institutes and 8005 seats in 30 government institutes in the state this year.

Meanwhile, the Odisha Private Engineering Schools’ Association (OPESA), in an effort to fill up the vacant seats, has sought permission from the Odisha High Court to conduct a second DET entrance examination on July 20.

As the admission process in the Plus Two streams will have finished by this time, there is a possibility that the students who have failed to take admission in the Plus Two streams might go for the DET.

OPESA secretary Saroj Kumar Sahu has alleged that large number of seats in the private institutes has fallen vacant as the officials at the nodal centres have forced the students to take admission in government institutes.

“Unless there is a change in the counseling process, the number of vacant seats in the private institutes of the state would go up every year”, he pointed out.