Kolkata: The West Bengal government has permitted educational institutions to conduct decentralised counselling to fill vacant seats in BTech, pharmacy and architecture programmes at government institutions. The one-time relaxation allows institutions to conduct the admission process online or offline, with the deadline set for October 31.

The decision follows multiple rounds of counselling conducted by the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board (WBJEEB), after which several seats remained vacant across the state. According to a report by The Times of India, around 21,000 BTech seats remained unfilled out of a total of 48,683.

State Higher Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay stated that 27,599 seats were filled through e-counselling and online decentralised counselling, which was 11,870 more than the previous year.

Under the revised arrangement, institutions have been directed to publish course-wise vacancy details, eligibility criteria, admission procedures and counselling schedules on their official websites and other platforms. They must also submit vacancy notifications to the Higher Education Department and the WBJEEB.

Institutions conducting decentralised counselling will be required to maintain records of applications received, eligibility checks, merit-list preparation, candidate selection and admissions. They must update information on vacant seats and completed admissions on the designated state portal by October 31. The department has set November 2 as the deadline for verification and stated that the admission deadline will not be extended.

The decision comes after state-run universities, including Jadavpur University and the University of Calcutta, sought permission to conduct their own counselling to fill the remaining seats.

Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said the delay in filling seats had affected the start of the academic session. He noted that classes at several national institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology, had already progressed to internal assessments.

University of Calcutta Vice-Chancellor Asutosh Ghosh also welcomed the decision, stating that the process would provide another opportunity to fill vacant seats.

According to the report, around 140 of Jadavpur University's 1,190 BTech seats remained vacant, while more than 140 of the University of Calcutta's 478 BTech seats were unfilled.

The decentralised counselling process is expected to provide institutions with an additional opportunity to fill vacancies while following the prescribed admission procedures and deadlines.