NEW DELHI, Aug 2 (PTI)

The Rajya Sabha was informed today that 26.10 per cent of the country's population (or 2,602.50 lakh people) were living below the poverty line in 1999/2000.

Of this, 27.09 per cent (or 1932.43 lakh people) were living in rural areas, and 23.62 per cent (or 670.07 lakh people) were in urban areas, Minister of State for Planning, Statistics and Programme Implementation Arun Shourie informed Mr N N Ojha in a written reply. In reply to another question, the minister told P K Maheshwari that incidence of unemployment which was 1.90 per cent of the labour force in 1993/94 has gone up to 2.23 per cent during 1999/2000.

Mr Shourie informed Mr S Ramachandra Reddy that the ratio of per capita consumption of the poor to non-poor had increased from 45 per cent in 1993/94 to 47 per cent in 1999/2000 in rural areas.

In urban areas, however, it had decreased from 37 per cent to 36 per cent during the same period.

The minister informed Mr Ram Jethmalani that the as per the latest data Bihar is having the minimum per capita income of Rs 4,475 and Delhi the maximum per capita income of Rs 22,375.

Mr Shourie further said differences in per capita income between the richest and the poorest states which were Rs 16,111 in 1993/94 had gone up to Rs 17,900 in 1999/2000. SOFTWARE EXPORTS: Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan informed Rajya Sabha that the export of software during 1999/2000 was Rs 17,300 crore as against Rs 12,500 crore during 19998/1999, registering a growth of 38.4 per cent.

He further said as per the Ninth Plan, a software export target of Rs 14,600 crore was set up for 1999/2000 and the actual achievement was much higher than the target. The minister said the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society under his ministry, has set up 21 centres, including 20 international gateways at various locations in the country with the support of the Central and state governments. STPI was planning to set up 30 more centres in the country, he added.

Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways B C Khanduri informed Saroj Dubey portions of G T road from Jalandhar to Kolkata falling on the National Highways One and Two are included in the National Highway Development Project which envisages four-laning of these national highways.

He said while the section from Jalandhar to Agra has already been four-laned, the balance sections are targeted to be completed by December 2003. In reply to another question, the minister informed Kum Kum Rai that no study had been carried out to investigate whether accidents are reduced by provision of brick shoulders.