Amritsar, Oct. 23 Hundreds of schoolchildren took out a march here on Thursday to spread general awareness and appeal children to not burn fireworks to celebrate the upcoming Diwali festival.

Participating in the march, the children carried placards reading messages like “ Say, no to crackers”.

Students appealed all children not to waste their parents’ hard-earned money on fire-crackers. The gesture was also aimed at preventing air and noise pollution through public awareness.

The participants in the march said the fireworks also cause harmful effects on everyone’s health with their poisonous gases.

Amritsar, Oct. 21 : The Punjabi Durbar programme of Radio Pakistan has been having a staple diet talking about the status of Sikhs in India. Now the radio has a new object to patronize - the Dalits in India.

In broadcasts directed to the border areas in Punjab, the Punjabi Durbar programme has blamed the Government of India for neglecting the Dalit community, including the scheduled casts and tribes.

This has provoked anger among the scheduled castes and tribes in the border areas.

Amritsar, Oct. 21 : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today criticized Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray for indulging in extremism through his party''s anti-north Indian tirade.

MNS activists have attracted widespread criticism from across the country for recently beating up several North Indian youths, who were to appear for interviews for Indian Railways'' Grade IV jobs.

Expressing concern over the unusual face of politics emerging from Maharashtra, Badal said: "He (Raj Thackeray) is doing wrong. If the tension escalates, it could break the country."