Ordinance to regulate admission in colleges in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Mar 3 (UNI) The Orissa government will soon promulgate an ordinance to regulate the admission, prohibit capitation fees and enforce reservation in Engineering and Medical colleges besides other professional educational institutions in the state.

A decision in this regard was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday to ensure quality education in the state and make the system more transparent.

The cabinet decided to conduct a single entrance examination for all the engineering and medical colleges in the state and enforce the reservation of certain percentage of seats for the NRI students, All India Joint Entrance Examination test and students from outside state.

Henceforth, a cap on the admission of students from outside the state would be in force restricting their numbers to 30 per cent in the Medical Colleges and 33 per cent in the Engineering Colleges.

As per the new reservation policy, 15 per cent of seat would be reserved for the NRI students and another 15 per cent for those who passed the All India Joint Entrance Examination Test.

Earlier, the private colleges had earmarked 50 per cent of their seats for the joint entrance examination conducted in the state.

The cabinet also decided to set up two committees such as Policy Planning Board and Fee Structure Committee to enforce a fair and transparent admission procedure in the colleges. While the Vice Chancellor of Biju Pattnaik University of Technology (BPUT) would be the Chairman of the Fee Structure Committee, the Industry Secretary would head the Policy Planning Board.

The cabinet has also cleared the proposal for creation of Professional Educational Fund which would be managed by an Administrator and fine imposed by the government on the colleges for violating the guidelines would be deposited in the fund. The money would be used for providing scholarships to the students and other developmental activities of the educational institutions.

The violation of guidelines would now attract a maximum fine of Rs ten lakh and imprisonment from six months to three years.

UNI