No quake forecast for India by SA: Government

 New Delhi, April 26: The SA has made no earthquake forecast for India, the government said on Sunday, and asked people to ignore text messages with a “fake” prediction of a strong quake to hit north India. “It is fake. The SA (tiol Aeroutics and Space Administration) cannot predict earthquakes. Such messages are only seeking to create panic among people,” a seismologist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS. Scotching the rumours, the IMD said the Indian government had received no such intimation from the US. “No country can predict earthquakes. The technology has not advanced so much as yet. There is some research going on in Chi, but even they have not reached any substantial result,” the official said. Purported as a SA forecast, a text message doing the rounds among mobile phone users in parts of India reads: “North India will face next earthquake at 8.06 p.m... The next richer (Richter) scale of earthquake will be 8.2. News from SA. (IANS)