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Tremors trigger alert

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR Aug. 23. The Gujarat Government has geared up the relief and rescue machinery and has asked the senior officials in Jamnagar district to maintain a constant vigil following a series of low-intensity tremors in some villages of the district in the last few days.Experts from the Indian Meteorology Department, Delhi, are expected in Jamnagar later tonight or tomorrow to study the situation following reports that some six villages in Lalpur taluk and three in Jamnagar taluk had experienced tremors regularly since August 12.

Residents of the said villages, most of them located along the Sasoi river, claimed to have noticed gaseous formations in the river bed preceding the tremors and heard loud noises. Over a dozen tremors were said to have occurred in the last 10 days with the highest intensity recorded being three on the Richter scale on August 19.

The villagers associate the tremors with the overflowing of the Sasoi dam but the experts are not convinced. Similar low-intensity tremors accompanied by loud noises were felt in neighbouring Rajkot district earlier this year and in Bhavnagar district, also in the Saurashtra region, last year but so far seismologists have not been able to identify the causes. Many people in the affected villages in Jamnagar are spending nights in makeshift tents.

The Agriculture and Revenue Minister, Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, said more tents were being rushed to Jamnagar. Mr. Chudasma visited the affected villages yesterday to reassure the people. A deputy mamlatdar had been posted in each of the nine affected villages with rescue and relief machinery to constantly monitor the situation while the District Collector and the District Development Officer were asked to maintain contact with the villages.

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