The higher education department on Saturday allowed Calcutta University to let its colleges reopen their portals to enable students submit fresh applications for admission to undergraduate courses.

June 12 was the last date for candidates to submit forms online.

At several colleges the largest number of vacancies are in the category reserved for SC, ST OBC-A and OBC-B and the physically handicapped, a university official said.

A little more than 45 per cent of the total seats in every college is reserved for these categories, according to some college principals. A maximum of 10 per cent of the reserved seats have been filled so far.

There are takers for the reserved seats in Purulia and Midnapore districts, they said.

Of the 2,200 reserved seats, 750 are vacant, the principal of a south Calcutta college said.

In some colleges, general category seats, too, are vacant in certain subjects such as philosophy and economics.

In 2013, the state government had made it compulsory for colleges to reserve 17 per cent of the seats for OBC-A and B students.

The government had asked colleges to increase the number of general seats in the same proportion over six years.

Several colleges had written to the university complaining that a considerable number of seats in the their institutions were vacant even after June 12, the last date for receiving applications online.

“Several colleges wanted us to allow them to reopen their portals,” Ashish Kumar Chatterjee, university pro-vice chancellor, academic affairs, said.

“So, we had referred the matter to the government,” Kumar said.