Incidentally, all the patients, who belong to Dhansura taluka in Sabarkantha district, said they fell ill after eating food fried in the Krishna brand of groundnut oil. Among them is six-year old Kajal.

Some patients told Express Newsline that though they had been feeling unwell for the last one month, with their feet swelling and and heartbeat getting irregular, local doctors could not trace the cause. When a team of doctors visited our taluka yesterday and made it clear that anybody having swollen feet and irregular heartbeat was suffering from dropsy, we came to know about the disease, they said.

For instance, 13-year-old Dipesh Pravinchandra Shah from Dhansura taluka began showing classic dropsy symptoms, including swelling in the feet in the past 10 days, but his parents came to know about the disease yesterday.

``Even the local doctor who was treating my son could not diagnose the disease'', Dipesh's father Pravin Chandra told Express Newsline. Similar is the case with Abdulabhai Gafurbhai Lohaar, 40, who, alongwith his son and daughter, was admitted to the hospital this afternoon. Said Lohaar: ``Soon after my feet started swelling about a month ago I consulted several doctors but none could trace the reason.'' He said his son Zakir Hussain and daughter Robina,12, started showing dropsy symptoms only a week back.

Ramilaben, 40, who is undergoing treatment along with her son Tushar, had told local doctors about swelling in the feet for the past one month, but in vain. ``When I consulted a doctor in the nearby Byed village, he started treating me for high blood pressure'', Ramila said.

The relatives of the three patients who were brought here last night and admitted to Ward no C-6, alleged that even the basic facilities were not being provided to them by the authorities. These patients include, Dipesh Pravinchandra Shah, 14, Tushar Chaganbhai Jaiswal, 13, and Hiren Rajnikant Soni.

The callousness of the hospital authorities was apparent from the fact that they were lying on the beds kept on the floor. ``We are also forced to purchase some of the expensive medicines and injections from outside as we are not getting these here'', Tushar's father Chagan Lal alleged. ``it's a big burden on me as I have already spent about Rs 4,000 on my son's treatment."

All the patients and their relatives blamed it on the `Krishna' brand groundnut oil. They said that after they were told yesterday by experts that the disease was caused by the `Krishna' brand oil, they had stopped using it. ``Most of us have stared using cottonseed oil'', Chaganbhai said.