“Some four to five protestors stormed the office where the recounselling was being held around 5:30 this evening. They asked us to sign an undertaking, which we refused to sign. The counselling was stalled for some time due to the protests, but it was resumed soon,” said the chairman of the JEEB, Siddhartha Datta.

He clarified that the website of the Board clearly mentions that recounselling is held for only the candidates who have registered their names in the waiting list. “We are unable to comprehend the reason behind their protest”, said Datta.

The protestors, however, alleged that only a limited number of students, whose names had been registered for the waiting list, were called for recounselling by the Board. One of them said, “For 2000 seats, only 2500 candidates who have registered their names in the waiting list have been allowed to appear”.

The recounselling for about 2,000 seats started on Saturday. Yesterday, too, sporadic incidents of protests were reported during the recounselling. The protestors demanded that the students, who have not enrolled themselves in the waiting list and are not eligible for a berth in the engineering colleges, should be allowed for a recounselling.

Earlier, the Board had decided to hold the recounselling session for only 600 of the 18,000 seats that did not get takers. However, later the AICTE gave approval to three new engineering colleges and increased about 660 seats in the existing institution. On Friday the Calcutta High Court asked the JEEB to conduct counselling for all the increased seats.