Jamshedpur, Aug. 27: Tata Steel has pledged Rs 100 crore to a social initiative programme as part of its centenary celebrations. It will involve two projects — a comprehensive land and water management scheme and schools for tribal children.

The first and more ambitious of the two will run for five years. It will be dedicated to the economically weaker sections of society in and around Jamshedpur and the states where Tata Steel operates.

B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, announced the project yesterday at the Tata Steel Archives in Jamshedpur. “We always believe in giving back to society many times over than what we take,” he said.

Tata Steel will take on land and water management projects in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa and touch 40,000 tribal households.

The company wants to create these blocks into models of excellence that may be replicated both by the government and corporate houses that participate in community development.

The project will create irrigation facilities for tribals, set up water user co-operatives, develop wastelands and promote horticulture and agro forestry.

The project will also encourage agricultural improvement through technological upgradation.

Tata Steel has signed a memorandum of understanding with The Ratan Tata Trust for providing technical support to the project.

At the Tata Tea annual general meeting held earlier this month in Calcutta, Ratan Tata had suggested that those supporting the cause of farmers should do something for them and the propaganda should not be politically motivated.

Tata Steel will depute the Tata Steel Rural Development Society, Jamshedpur as the nodal agency for implementing the project.

The agency’s operational area has grown from 32 villages to more than 700.

The second project involves setting up all-day schools for children from scheduled caste/tribe families in backward districts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The schools will be able to enrol 1,000 children each.

Muthuraman has also announced two major projects for Jamshedpur.