Wednesday, August 24 2005 14:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: There are over 26 crore people living below poverty line (BPL) in India and more than 19 crore of them are in rural areas, Lok Sabha was informed today (August 24, 2005).

While Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states having the largest chunk of BPL population estimated at 5.3 crore, it is followed by Bihar with 4.3 crore and Madhya Pradesh with about three crore, Minister of State for Planning M V Rajasekharan said in reply to a question quoting 1999-2000 figures.

West Bengal has 2.1 crore BPL population, while Orissa 1.7 crore, Tamil Nadu 1.3 crore, Andhra Pradesh 1.2 crore and Karnataka over one crore people living in abject poverty, he said.

The urban BPL population stood at over 6.7 crore as per the official figures, he said.