New Delhi: Officials of the 13 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), including the six new, are meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to fill up some of the reserved seats that remain vacant.

Scores of IIT seats have fallen vacant this year after their numbers were increased to partially implement the 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes students.

In spite of a relaxation in the cut-offs, many students in the reserved category failed to make it to the IITs. While some of the seven older institutions were planning to transfer the vacant seats to the general category aspirants, the human resource development (HRD) ministry did not approve the move.

According to IIT-Delhi authorities, the "Joint Admission Board (of the IIT network) will be meeting on Wednesday in New Delhi."

Authorities said besides the seat issue, the board would discuss implementation of quota in the selection of faculty at IITs.

The HRD ministry in June directed the IITs to implement quota in appointment of faculty - 27 percent quota for OBC candidates, and 15 percent for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes candidates.

However, the IITs asked the ministry for a "second thought" on this as they believe it could hamper the quality of teaching in these premier technology schools.

Six new IITs were added during this academic session to the seven already existing ones - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee and Guwahati. The six new IITs are the IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Patna, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Punjab, IIT Rajasthan and IIT Andhra Pradseh. IANS