Cuttack, May 28: Residents at Mehendipeer and Mahidas Bazaar in ward Nos. 13 and 14 are livid with jaundice making a comeback for the second time in the last couple of months.

Residents said more than 80 persons have been affected with jaundice after consumption of contaminated water in the past fortnight. However, health officials claimed only 13 cases had been confirmed and a medical camp set up at Mehendipeer to screen the suspected cases.

"We have started a health camp as a preliminary measure to tackle the situation and old cases with jaundice symptoms will shortly be recorded along with the fresh cases," said city health officer P.K. Pradhan.

Over 165 jaundice cases had been reported from Thoria Sahi, Mangalabag, Jobra and other areas in February.

The issue took a political twist with the Congress holding both the district administration and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation responsible for the outbreak of jaundice in two localities.

"The administration has failed to improve the sanitation and replace old pipelines because of which the situation has aggravated here. The situation is likely to worsen if the leaks in the pipelines are not detected and repaired before the monsoon," said Mohammad Moquim, Cuttack Nagar Congress president.

The district administration, on the other hand, claimed that work on detecting the leaks in the pipes had started and drinking water was being supplied through tankers in the affected areas. This is for the second time that fresh jaundice cases have been reported at Mehendipeer after October last year when around 50 persons were affected.

"This is a complete failure of the district administration, the corporation and the public health department," said Zafarulla Khan, 62, a retired government servant.

"We had filed a petition before the local MLA and the officials of the public health department on several occasions since 2009 for replacement of main pipeline for drinking water supply. We believe that the situation could have been avoided if the authorities had taken timely action," said Firoz Ahmed, 65, an advocate.

Ahmed said the authorities had begun to search for leaks in the main water supply lines in the locality from today.