In a shocking development, 21 more cases of typhoid have come to light on Monday in Bavla taluka of Ahmedabad district.

With this the total number of people infected with typhoid has risen to 127.

According to reports, the new typhoid cases, all of them are children, from the three villages of Bhayla, Keirala and Kalyangadh in Bavla, which were registered at the Sola Civil Hospital today.

The Sola civil hospital having a capacity of 12 beds in the pediatric ward, is now crammed with young patients, who have been accommodated in the hospital corridor.

Earlier, the state Water Supply Department lodged an FIR against unknown persons for repeatedly damaging the water pipelines going through the villages.

The state government functionaries said the water contamination was the reason behind the epidemic, while villagers said that the water supplied to them was reddish in colour with a strong smell resulting in respiratory troubles.

J B Parmer from Bhayla village, who is being treated at the Sola Civil Hospital, said: “The epidemic has spread due to the supply of polluted water. Allegations by the officials that the pipeline was damaged to draw water for irrigation are untrue. In fact, the colour of the water used to be red.”

“Please ask Narendra Modi to supply clean water to our village,” Another villager added.

However, Rakesh Vaidya, Ahmedabad Chief District Health Officer said, “It is true that the villagers themselves might not have damaged the pipelines, but the fact is that they were damaged about 1 to 5 kilometres on the highway outside the village. The reddish water that was supplied to their houses was due to the contamination at these breakage points.”

“We are carrying on with our surveillance and our workers are adding tablets to purify the water in the drinking vessels in every villagers’ house and give reference service at the village level. The contamination is clearly due to the damage to the pipelines. We are trying to address their problems,” Vaidya added.

Manish Shrimali, the deputy Executive Engineer of the Water Supply Department, who had filed the FIR said: “We repaired all the minor leakages by Monday and have started supplying 1ppm chlorinated water to the villages since then. The police have asked us to give the names of the suspected people, but all we could give was the location, as the villagers are not cooperating with us. Everyone knows the culprits but they are not willing to spell out the names.”

Rakesh Vaidya also said that more than 10 health teams are making surveys of the affected villages to identify people who might be suffering from the water borne disease.