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320 m Indians exist below the poverty line

As many as 320.37 million people in the country were estimated to be living below the poverty line in 1993-94.

The population below the poverty norm in Maharashtra and Karnataka was 30.52 million and 15.65 million respectively in 1993-94, Minister of Planning and Programme Implementation Ram Naik said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha yesterday.

The government has decided to create a ''non-lapsable central pool of resources'' for funding specific projects in north-eastern states and Sikkim. Projects for the development of these states would be identified in consultation with the state governments and the North-Eastern council.

Giving this information, Ram Naik told Bhim Dahal that the concerned ministries/ departments are directed to allocate at least 10 per cent of their budget for specific programmes in the NE states.

As on December 1997, out of 454 projects costing Rs 200 million and above on the monitoring system of the department of programme implementation, 211 projects were behind scheduled with respect to their original schedule.

These 211 delayed projects together have reported cost escalation of Rs 348. 66 billion with respect to their original cost estimate of Rs 633.92 billion, Naik informed Dr Chinta Mohan in a written reply.

UNI

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