Bokaro, April 22: The steel industry has to make further progress to fulfil the demand of the country and has a long way to go since the consumption level in India is very low compared to that in other nations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.

"Steel industry has made progress, but it has to make further progress to fulfil the country`s demand," Singh said while laying the foundation stone for modernisation and expansion of the Bokaro Steel Plant here.

He said although the Indian steel industry is decades old, it is still emerging and there is lot of scope for modernisation of the industry.

The Prime Minister, however, did not talk about rising prices of steel. Earlier in the day Finance Minister P Chidambaram had charged the industry with `cartel-like` behaviour in Parliament.

Turning to Jharkhand`s progress, Singh said an amount of Rs 40,240 crore had been allotted for the state during the 11th Five Year Plan. This amount is three times more than the allocation in the previous Plan.

Singh said the UPA government took steps for the backward states and Rs 700 crore was sanctioned for Jharkhand. Unfortunately, the state could not avail of the funds due to litigations. The Prime Minister expressed hope that the case would be resolved soon and the state would get its due share.

Singh announced that a new central university and an IIM would be set up in Jharkhand. Besides, Rs 120 crore would be spent for upgrading the Rajendra Prasad Chikitsa Vigyan Sansthan on par with AIIMS.

He said the UPA government had given attention to empowering STs and for those who live in forests and formulated an Act to safeguard their interests and urged all chief ministers to implement the Forest Act.

The Prime Minister said the Centre was assisting Jharkhand for setting up a 4,000-MW ultra mega project at Tilaiya and another 1,000 MW thermal power plant in the state.

Singh said that more than 13 coal blocks had been allotted to Jharkhand State Electricity Board and Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation.

He said that Rs 1,500 crore had also been sanctioned for rural electrification in 22 districts of the state.

The National Highways from Barhi to Jamshedpur and Hazaribagh to Ranchi would be made four-lane each. The frequency of the Bhagalpur Express would also increased.

Stating that the Centre had given stress on education, the Prime Minister said the mid-day meal scheme would be extended to the upper primary level.

Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who was also present on the occasion, said the Indian steel industry was growing at the rate of 10 per cent while the consumption growth was 13 per cent. This called for raising of production for which Steel Authority of India would invest Rs 54,000 crore across all steel plants in the country to raise the total capacity.

He said that SAIL`s capacity would be ramped up to 26 million tonne by 2010 from the present level of 14 million tonne.

Stating that IISCO Steel Plant has already merged with SAIL, Paswan said other companies like Maharashtra Electrosmelt Ltd and Nilachal Ispat would also be merged with SAIL to make it a big entity.

He also announced setting up of a 12 million tonne Greenfield Steel Plant in Jharkhand, but asked Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda to take a faster decision for resolving the Chiria mines issue.

PM regrets loss of funds due to non-holding of rural polls

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today described as unfortunate the loss of Rs 7000 crore in Central funds incurred by Jharkhand because of delay in holding panchayat elections in the state.

Addressing a function organised by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) here, Singh said the state had incurred the loss due to pending cases.