In a shocking incident, three persons including a woman were reported dead on Wednesday morning because of gastroenteritis spread in Badungar Colony.
More than 100 persons have been admitted in local Government Rajindra Medical College and Hospital and other private hospitals after the spurt of the disease in the area.
As per relatives of the deceased, all the three were suffering from vomiting, and were under-treatment of diarrhea from the past three days.
The deceased have been identified as Naraiyan Singh (75), Gurdyal Singh (65) and Gurdev Kaur (72) all belonging to the poor families residing in the colony.
Civil surgeon Dr VS Mohi said the exact cause of the death was still to be ascertained but preliminary investigations into the cases revealed that the deceased were suffering from gastroenteritis.
The experts earlier suspected the deaths due to cholera, the four cases of which were diagnosed in another Sanjay colony where too more than 100 cases of gastroenteritis have been reported in the last one week.
Locals of Badungar area have alleged that contamination in water being supplied by municipal corporation authorities is the sole reason behind outbreak of the disease in the area.
"The case histories of the deceased did not show any sign of cholera. But their samples would be taken to know the exact cause of the death," said the civil surgeon.
The water supply line in the area was damaged by a truck on Saturday evening, because of which it got mixed with the sewerage pipe of the area and resulted in contamination. The corporation authorities failed to repair it till date, said local resident, SK Pathi.
"The case histories of the deceased did not show any sign of cholera. But their samples would be taken to know the exact cause of the death," said the civil surgeon.
The water supply line in the area was damaged by a truck on Saturday evening, because of which it got mixed with the sewerage pipe of the area and resulted in contamination. The corporation authorities failed to repair it till date, said local resident, SK Pathi.
Commissioner of the civic body, Gurloveleen Singh Sidhu had to face ire of the public when he visited the spot with other officials after the deaths.
Locals exchanged heated arguments with the commissioner when he tried to convince them that the supplied water was not contaminated. A team of doctors have camped in the area to conduct tests of the suspected cases.
Heavy police force has also been deployed to avoid any untoward incident.