Human Resources Development Ministry has decided to set up a three-member committee to examine the causes behind large number of seats remaining vacant in leading technical institutes including the IITs and the NITs this year. <br/><br/>The committee, which will be headed by IIT Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakraborty, is expected to submit its report in three weeks. It has been asked to consider a number of options, including looking at whether scrapping of fee refund in case a candidate does not join the institute, would help improve the situation.<br/><br/>It is learnt that nearly 3,000 seats remained vacant this year despite six rounds of joint counseling for the IITs, NITs and other central technical institutes. The Ministry had considered holding another round of counseling, but finally decided against it as it would have crossed the August 15 deadline set for admissions by the Supreme Court.