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Earthquake rumours cause panic

By Kanwar Yogendra

SHIMLA, FEB.20. The people of this hill State came out of their houses early morning fearing a massive earthquake, a probable repeat of the 1905 earthquake of Kangra, and spent their time in biting cold in collective discussions and planning in the open valleys, grounds and any flat surface available between the mounts.

"By 4 am the famous Paddal Ground in Mandi was full of people, all cars and scooters rushing to the famous and only cricket field in the town and the atmosphere became lively but with a tinge of panic", said Dr. R.K. Rajoo, a retired Agronomist who himself became a victim of rumour in the early morning and woke up his family members after getting a phone call from a friend. The shopkeepers opened their shops in the most awkward hours but did a brisk business. The three-wheeler drivers earned good money in transporting people to the main town from the nearby localities and suburbs.

Similarly thousands of people ran in panic and spent the whole night in open in Chowgan, a big ground in Chamba, Police Ground in Dharamsala, Dhalpur in Kullu, Indira Stadium in Una and all other available big fields in the smaller towns. Some had even taken their jewellery and cash along with them.

Because of a devastating earthquake on February 19, 1905 in Kangra in which thousands of people died and in the wake of recent Tsunami disaster, there was fear among the people. There were some `reports' doing the rounds that the experts had predicted that it gets repeated after about 100 years and the extraordinary bad weather, unusual rains and biting cold winds yesterday led to this panic, said Mr. Pawan Sharma, an advocate from Kangra.

"It is deeply rooted in our consciousness that it would definitely come one day and we would be nearest to the epicenter like a century ago", he said.

The rumour which had some scientific basis this time led to panic in districts like Kangra, Chamba, Kullu, Mandi, Hamirpur and Bilaspur of the hill state. Says Jai Ram Thakur, an MLA who was sleeping in a Circuit House in Mandi after a hectic day and got a call at 3.30 am in the morning. "I got similar telephones from different places and people rang up even Delhi, Shimla and to the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana," he said. The district administration officials had a tough time making the people understand that these were only rumours and not given by any authorised or responsible agencies. "The telephones started ringing after 12 at midnight," said a police official in Kullu.

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