The decision comes in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes would be implemented from this year in the State.

Pragnesh Shah, who secured 85 per cent in the Higher Secondary examinations this year and hopes to join a professional course, said, ``There were reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes even before this. The additional quota leaves very few seats for us general category students''.

Another student, Bharti Vyas, said while she had no problems with reservations, there was no justification for keeping the quotas so large. In normal circumstances, the professional degree courses begin their first semesters in August; the examinations are generally held in November. Because of the centralised admission committee's decision, the students stand to lose a semester.

Vice-Chancellor of M S University Anil Kane, however, was confident that if the admission procedure was completed by the first week of November, they would be able to complete the syllabus well within the academic year. In case the procedure was delayed further, however, he suggested that all universities get together to persuade the authorities to speed up things.

While announcing that they would discontinue their agitation programme, university general secretary Prakash Verma, however, said that they would go on sending letters and submitting memoranda to the authorities concerned to pressure for the initiation of the admission formalities within the next few days.