Thousands of students took out rally from the Maulana Azad Medical College in Central Delhi towards Jantar Mantar near Parliament House.
Updated at 10.50 pm
NEW DELHI: Assuring all sections of an "amicable" settlement on the reservation issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to the striking medicos to call off their agitation and have faith in government's "sincerity".
The prime minister's first direct public comments on the raging controversy came at the end of a hectic day of developments on the reservation front when the Group of
Ministers headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee submitted its report to him.
The report is understood to have recommended an increase in the number of seats in the elite educational institutions like IITs and IIMs without affecting the general category seats and its implementation in a phased manner.
Earlier, the striking medicos on Saturday met Mukherjee with indications that a solution to the quota problem was near.
"Talks between striking doctors with Mukherjee are continuing. They are in an advanced stage," representatives of striking doctors said.
Some kind of formula was being worked out to increase the number of seats simultaneously with implementation of the OBC quota, they said.
Mukherjee expressed the hope that the stir would be called off by May 22, the day the United Progressive Alliance coalition completes two years in office.
"I hope so," Mukherjee, who briefed the Congress Working Committee on the matter, told reporters later.
Earlier, intensifying their month-old stir, thousands of students and doctors from across the country and their parents and teachers took out a massive silent march here on Saturday demanding rollback of the government's quota proposals for educational institutes.
Amid tight security, medicos from across the country, joined by students from IITs, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, members of the Resident Welfare Association rallied from Maulana Azad Medical College in Central Delhi to Jantar Mantar.
Waving placards and banners, students under the aegis of 'Youth For Equality' were joined by cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP MP from Amritsar, and inspirational writer Shiv Khera in criticising the government's reservation policy.
Medical students from Varanasi, Mangalore, Bikaner, Jaipur, Rohtak, Patiala, Ajmer also joined the rally along with engineers from 54 private companies, including some major software firms.
"We want a peaceful rally and avoid any confrontation with police and pro-reservation activists," Dr Kumar Harsh a representative for 'Youth for Equality' told the protest march which stretched over a kilometer on the busy Delhi roads.
Unlike previous occasions, traffic moved smoothly along side the protestors, who refrained from sloganeering and marched in an organised manner. "Let us not shout slogans. Let our silence speak for itself," Harsh told the students.
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