Malampuzha (Palakkad), May 8: The flex boards at Akathethara are hard to miss. But harder to forget is the message they convey.

The boards that greet visitors at Akathethara, the entrance to the high-profile Malampuzha constituency represented by former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, say that over a dozen people have died because of traffic woes thrown up by the local railway level crossing.

No wonder the demand for a new railway overbridge is a major poll issue in the constituency. Kerala votes on May 16 to elect a new government.

The Left, the BJP and the Congress have been blaming each other for a problem that has persisted for nearly three decades now.

Vipin Sekkuri, convener of the people's panel for the bridge, says the level crossing - a "stone's throw from one of south India's busiest railway stations, the Palakkad Junction" - remains closed for almost "nine hours a day" spanning different intervals, as dozens of trains pass along this route.

"The road in and out of Akathethara too is busy and hundreds of vehicles remain stranded whenever the gate is closed. Many times, vehicles with critically ill patients have got stuck and the patients have died. Eighteen people lost their lives this way."

BJP candidate C. Krishnakumar, who is also the vice-chairman of the Palakkad municipality, the only civic body ruled by the party in Kerala, blamed the Left and the Congress. "The Left and the Congress governments which have ruled the state are to blame. According to a 1984 agreement with the railways, the state had to bear all the expenses towards maintenance of the gate and any related work. Accordingly, the state has to fund the overbridge, which it has not done so far."

CPM Malampuzha mandalam secretary A. Prabhakaran put the onus on the BJP-led Centre. "It is the central government which has to build the bridge. There are some problems regarding land acquisition, but even if the Centre doesn't build it, we have promised that we will build it at the state government's cost if we come to power."

But two flex boards, apparently put up by the CPM near the level crossing, contradict the party's claims. One of them, in the name of the Akathethara local body, cites a reply given by the public works minister of the Congress-led state government on July 28 last year in response to a submission by Achuthanandan.

It reiterates the argument that it is the state that has to bear all the expenses for constructing the bridge, while also making it clear that VS - as Achuthanandan is popularly known as - has not been silent on the issue.

But the other board, which bears an image of VS and lists charges against the BJP, claims it was the central government that had ignored the bridge in its budgets.

The Congress too sought to wash its hands of the matter and blamed VS. Student wing leader V.S. Joy, whom the party has fielded from the constituency, could not be reached for comment, but P.C. Sethu, the president of the party's Malampuzha block committee, alleged that "VS has no time for his constituency".

Malampuzha's infrastructure woes, however, don't end here.

At Akamalavaram, in the foothills of the Western Ghats, an abandoned semi-constructed bridge stands as a reminder to a promise of a ring road around the Malampuzha dam, the state's largest reservoir.

Residents say the ring road project was started around nine years ago when a CPM-led Left government was in power, but nothing happened. "The road around the dam is roughly 32km. Joining the two ends would have shrunk the distance from Akamalavaram to Malampuzha town to just 6km. Now we have to travel 26km to reach town," says Manoj, a local resident.

Prabhakaran, the CPM's Malampuzha mandalam secretary, said the project was conceived when party leader T. Sivadasamenon represented Malampuzha. "Later, during VS's time, 31km were built and tarred. But unfortunately, a private party went to court against the land acquisition and obtained a favourable order. So, it could not be completed."

BJP candidate Krishnakumar disagreed. "If the government wanted, it could have found a way," he said.

In Kodumbu panchayat, which also falls in the constituency, wooden planks tied over inflatable rubber tubes double as a raft for nearly 60 families living across the Chittoor river. People have to pull the rope that ties the "raft" to both ends of the river to get across. "There is a bridge but it is 1.5km away. We have been requesting the authorities for a bridge but nothing has moved," sighed Sarasu, a resident.

Achuthanandan's office could not be reached for comment. But party leader Prabhakaran said a demand for a hanging bridge would be "fulfilled soon".