Nainital: Two more people have died amid an outbreak of diarrhoea, vomiting, typhoid and jaundice in Nainital’s Jeolikote area, taking the reported death toll to three. Residents claimed contaminated drinking water was the cause of the illnesses, which were first reported in late June.The latest to die include 16-year-old Ritesh Jeena from Sariyatal and 26-year-old Neema Joshi from Jeolikote. Ritesh had been suffering from typhoid, vomiting and diarrhoea. His condition worsened on Aug 28, and he was taken to private hospitals in Haldwani before being referred to Delhi.His uncle, BS Jeena, said, “Doctors at LBS Hospital and AIIMS advised a liver transplant. Treatment at private hospitals was estimated to cost over Rs 1 crore. Ritesh was later admitted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where he died after multiple organ failure.”Neema, a mother of two daughters, was taken to a private hospital in Haldwani on Sept 1 and 2. After doctors diagnosed her with a liver infection and jaundice, she was shifted to Bareilly’s Ram Murti Hospital, where she died. She was among the first to raise the issue of dirty supply water.Block development committee member Himanshu Pandey said villagers are angry. “The woman who first raised the issue and whose video went viral on social media also died of jaundice. If Jal Sansthan had taken the matter seriously, such a situation would not have arisen,” he said.Block pramukh Harish Bisht said, “A district administration team and the chief medical officer visited the water source on Monday and directed that a sewage chamber above it be shifted quickly. Officials also assured villagers that water sources would be chlorinated and fresh samples had been collected.”Bisht added that schools in the area had been ordered to remain closed indefinitely.A joint medical team from Nainital and Sushila Tewari Hospital has been conducting health check-ups in the villages. In Chhida, 20 people were screened and 14 had blood samples collected. In Sariyatal, 25 people were examined, while 95 were screened in Jeolikote, with six patients admitted for treatment.Meanwhile, a PIL was filed in the high court on Monday by Ravi Bisht, a resident of Beluwakhan in Jeloikote, citing over 60 reported cases, several hospitalisations and three deaths in Beluwakhan, Jeloikote, Gethiya, Sariyatal and adjoining areas in Bhimtal block.The petition alleged that drinking water contamination could be linked to leaking sewer lines, untreated sewage discharge from hotels and homestays and a leaking municipal pipeline in Krishnapur. It also cited tests by district-level water quality testing and monitoring laboratory of Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, which found total coliform and turbidity/quality irregularities in raw water sA division bench of justice Manoj Kumar Tewari and justice Siddhartha Sah directed the Nainital district magistrate, chief medical officer, in-charge general manager of Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan and chief engineer of Kumaon circle, Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam, to be physically present in court on Tuesday, directing them to present a roadmap to tackle drinking water contamination and the outbreak of water-borne diseases.HC also directed the executive engineer of Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan to ensure immediate supply of clean and safe drinking water to affected villagers