To empower people living in rural India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the distribution of Aadhar like property cards under the Survey of Villages And Mapping With Improvised Technology In Village Areas (SVAMITVA) scheme at 11 am on Sunday. These cards are physical copies of property titles of the villagers’ homes and the surrounding areas they own (as opposed to the cultivated land).

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PM Modi will interact with some of the beneficiaries of the scheme as part of the event in which cards will be handed over to around 132,000 landowners. Union minister for panchayati raj Narendra Singh Tomar will be present in the programme.

According to the PMO, the beneficiaries are from 763 villages including 346 from Uttar Pradesh, 221 from Haryana, 100 from Maharashtra, 44 from Madhya Pradesh, 50 from Uttarakhand, and two from Karnataka.

What are Aadhar Like Property Cards?

Each card will get a unique identification number similar to the Aadhaar card. This is the first time ever that such a large-scale exercise involving the most modern means of technology is being carried out to benefit millions of rural property owners.

The launch will enable around one lakh property holders to download their property cards through the SMS link delivered on their mobile phones. This would be followed by the physical distribution of the property cards by the respective state governments.­­­­

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The move will pave the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for taking loans and other financial benefits.

What is Svamitva Scheme or Svamitva Yojna?

  • Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) is a central sector scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

  • SVAMITVA Scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24th April 2020.

  • The scheme aims to provide the ‘record of rights’ to village household owners in rural areas and issue property cards.

  • The scheme is being implemented across the country in a phased manner over a period of four years (2020-2024).

  • The scheme would eventually cover around 6.62 lakh villages of the country.

  • About 1 lakh villages in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, and few border villages of Punjab & Rajasthan, along with establishment of Continuous Operating System (CORS) stations’ network across Punjab & Rajasthan, are being covered in the Pilot phase (2020-21).

  • All these six States have signed MoU with Survey of India for drone survey of rural areas and implementation of the scheme.

  • These states have finalised the digital property card format and the villages to be covered for a drone-based survey.

  • States of Punjab and Rajasthan have signed MoU with Survey of India for the establishment of CORS network to assist in future drone flying activities.

  • The different States have different nomenclature for the Property Cards viz. ‘Title deed’ in Haryana, ‘Rural Property Ownership Records (RPOR)’ in Karnataka, ‘Adhikar Abhilekh’ in Madhya Pradesh, ‘Sannad’ in Maharashtra, ‘Svamitva Abhilekh’ in Uttarakhand, ‘Gharauni’ in Uttar Pradesh.