Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 28 (Reporter) About 2.6 lakh households in Thiruvananthapuram deprived of water connection despite fund allocation from the Centre, BJP-led NDA candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleged on Thursday. Speaking at an election campaign, the former union minister said despite the union government sanctioning funds through the Jal Jeevan Mission three years ago, 2.6 lakh households in Thiruvananthapuram have not been provided with safe drinking water connection. "The responsibility lies squarely with the state government, which has yet to release the matching grant. If elected, I pledge to prioritize bringing safe water to every household in Thiruvananthapuram," he added. "Thiruvananthapuram has 7 lakh households. In 2019, drinking water connection was available to only 23.20 percent of people, but through the Prime Minister Jal Jeevan Mission, 62.40 percent of people got drinking water. What the state government could not do in 70 years, the Modi government has done in four and a half years," he said. He also clarified that the Kerala Government failed to implement the Jal Jeevan Mission as it could provide piped water connection to only 37.81% of 70.80.lakh rural households targeted under the scheme in the State. The mismanagement of the State Government and the incompetence of the sitting MPs of both the UDF and the LDF are the reasons for the failure of the project, he added. Seeking his victory as a NDA candidate from the consistency, he assured drinking water in all homes in Thiruvananthapuram constituency within the next five years saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scheme on Independence Day-2019 to provide drinking water to all rural homes in the country. The scheme attained 100 % target in several states including Gujarat, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Hariyana, Puducherry and 90 % in Bihar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT and Minister of State for Jal Shakti, said...////...