THREE persons from Athupatti village in Vedasandur block of Dindigul died of diarrhoea on Wednesday. Irked by this villagers resorted to a picketing agitation, charging the authorities that the deceased could have been saved if there was proper road facilities to the village. Rajaperumal (25) a farm labourer of the village was living with his parents and brothers. Thamizhchelvi (32) was employed as a noon meal worker and Muniyammal (38) was also a farm worker. All three of them were living in the same compound in different houses. On Wednesday night after consuming dinner, Thamizhchelvi and Muniyammal showed symptoms of diarrhoea. The villagers tried to contact the 108 ambulance, but it was not available. Therefore, Muniyammal died before being taken to the hospital. Thamizhchelvi was taken by a private ambulance to the Dindigul government hospital where she succumbed. Rajaperumal who also suffered diarrhoea and died on admission to a hospital. Hospital sources said that the deceased had died of food poisoning. But the villagers say that other members of their families had also con sumed the same food but were not affected. They said that there was no proper road to the village and therefore vehicles do not ply and resorted to picketing on Dindigul-Karur road which disrupted traffic for over an hour. Meanwhile in Madurai, a 33-year-old woman died of diarrhoea at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) on Tuesday morning and 150 patients were admitted to another city hospital indicating that all is not well in Madurai and surrounding districts as far as health is concerned. Potable water unfit for consumption is suspected to be the main reason for these cases. Sonaiammal (33), wife of Ganesan of Kondagai Muniandipuram village in Sivagangai district was admitted to the GRH on Sunday, along with her six-yearold son, on complaints of diarrhoea. The woman died on Tuesday morning while the kid's condition is said to be stable, hospital sources said. Besides this, during the past few days, about 150 patients were admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) at Austinpatti after they complained of diarrhoea. Chief Health Officer Dr V Subramanian admitted that the residual level of chlorine has been found to be low in some areas in the city, apart from sewage getting mixed with water pipelines.