'Educate people on quake preparedness'

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, SEPT. 26. Members in the Pondicherry Assembly today made a plea to the Chief Minister to take into consideration the mild tremor experienced in Pondicherry last night and initiate measures to educate the people on what they should do to guard themselves in such situations. Mr. V. Vaithilingam (Cong.) raised the incident of tremor even as the House was going ahead with its scheduled business. He said there should be mass education as to what the people should do.

Mr. S. P. Sivakumar also wanted spreading of information through the electronic media.Mr. Shah Jahan (Cong.) and Mr. A. M. Krishnamoorthy (BJP) said that already the overdrawal of underground water indiscriminately by various establishments had come to cause concern.

Mr. Shah Jahan said as the epicentre of the tremor was 50 km east of Pondicherry in the sea, there should be urgent action.

He wanted the Chief Minister to procure an experts team to study the situation to tackle any future exigency. The Chief Minister said all steps would be taken to hold the survey.

He too felt the tremor and a couple of legislators who were then holding talks with him also scurried out because of the shake they felt.

Dies of cardiac arrest

Although neither the police nor the fire service here received any report of incidents of damage to buildings or any casualty in the context of the last night's mild tremor, a resident in Thengaithittu village near Modeliarpet R. Elumalai reportedly had a cardiac arrest under the impact of the tremor and died.

The 42-year-old resident was inside his house watching television programmes and when the tremor was felt, he tried to take his children out of the house but collapsed and died of heart attack in the next few minutes.

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