The Odisha Technical College Association (OTCA) on Thursday called for State-wide strike on December 1 in protest against the State Government’s decision to cancel OJEE, 2015.
According to OTCA president Biswajit Mohanty, the State Government on November 21 rejected the recommendation of Policy Planning Body (PPB) to conduct Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) to overcome the problem of huge vacancy of seats in private engineering colleges, even after a special OJEE was conducted and decided to stick to CBSE’s JEE Main-2015 for admission to BTech courses. Due to conducting of only the JEE Main (without OJEE), huge vacancies had been created last year and if this was repeated this year it would compound the problems of the private engineering college managements.
“We demand justice and level playing field vis-à-vis private universities for the poor students of Odisha,” said Mohanty.
OTCA secretary Manoj Samantray said, “The Government’s decision to cancel OJEE is illegal and has made the Orissa Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission & Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007 redundant.” He said the OPECA and the OMCA also have extended their support to make the strike a successful one.
Before the strike, the association will observe a candlelight march on November 28, OTCA sources said.