New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday distributed property cards under the SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme to property owners in more than 230 districts across 10 states and two Union Territories.
They include Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and 2 UTs - Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
PM Modi, addressing the beneficiaries via video conference said that this marks a historic day for the villages of the country and also for the rural economy.
"The ownership scheme was started 5 years ago so that people living in villages can be given their legal proof. In the last 5 years, these ownership cards have been given to about 1.5 crore people. Today, more than 65 lakh families have received these ownership cards under this program, " said PM Modi.
He rued that previous regimes did not take any concrete steps in this direction and the SVAMITVA yojana began only after the BJP government came to power in 2014.
"With the availability of property rights, the problems of the Gram Panchayats will be resolved, and they will also become financially empowered. This will also make it easier to get a proper claim in case of a disaster, " PM Modi remarked, highlighting its benefits.
He said that the SVAMITVA scheme has given a unique identity to land through Bhu-Aadhaar and added that about 23 crore Bhu-Aadhaar numbers have been issued.
"In the last 7-8 years, about 98 per cent of land records have been digitised. Mahatma Gandhi used to say - India lives in villages, the soul of India is in villages. The work of truly implementing this sentiment has been done in the last decade, " the Prime Minister said.
Notably, the SVAMITVA scheme’s pilot project was launched on April 24, 2020 and its national rollout was done on April 24, 2021. Under the scheme, the land parcels in rural inhabited areas of all the villages of the country are surveyed using drone technology.
The scheme also helps facilitate monetisation of properties and enabling institutional credit through bank loans, reducing property-related disputes; facilitating better assessment of properties and property tax in rural areas and enabling comprehensive village-level planning.