CUTTACK:  While fresh outbreak of jaundice has spread panic among residents of the Millennium City, Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is in a state of ignorance about the disease raising its ugly head again.More than 20 residents have been reportedly affected by the water-borne disease at Sikharpur Tala Sahi in the last few days. Use of contaminated water due to leakage in water supply pipelines stretching close to drains is said to be the cause behind the resurgence of the disease.

Residents alleged that though they had complained about foul smell coming out of water due to contamination for the last few months, the civic body failed to provide safe drinking water.Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal, who visited the affected locality along with officials of Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), admitted the outbreak of jaundice and said all necessary steps would be taken to arrest its spread. 

As an immediate measure, the PHEO officials started providing safe drinking water through tankers to residents in the affected locality to prevent further spread of the disease. The officials also collected seven water samples from the affected locality and sent those to laboratory for testing. 

The PHEO officials have been directed to replace drinking water pipeline on the three km stretch in the locality, said Biswal. On the other hand, officials ofthe civic body said there is no information about the outbreak of disease. “We have no information about outbreak of jaundice in Sikharpur,” said City Health Officer Umesh Panigrahi.