Over 58 lakh SVAMITVA property cards to be issued, PM to address virtual event on Friday

New Delhi: Over 58 lakh property cards providing ‘Record of Rights’ will be issued for owners in over 50,000 villages across 12 states and union territories on Friday at a virtual event which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials of Panchayati Raj Ministry said on Wednesday. At least 13 union ministers will meanwhile address events in different states where the property cards will be distributed, officials said. SVAMITVA Scheme, which was launched in 2020, aims at providing a “Record of Rights” to every property owner in the Village Abadi area.

Officials from the Panchayati Raj Ministry said the virtual event, which will be addressed by the Prime Minister, property cards will be issued to 58 lakh property owners in approximately 50,000 villages across 10 states – Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and two Union Territories- Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh.

Meanwhile, several union ministers will reach out to the beneficiaries at different locations in these states, and also distribute some of the property cards.

In Rajasthan, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will attend an event in Jodhpur, while JP Nadda will be in Jaipur, Bhupender Yadav in Alwar, Annpurna Devi will be in Kota, and Arjun Ram Meghwal will be in Bikaner.

In Maharashtra, union minister Piyush Goyal will address an event in Ahilya Nagar, MoS Raksha Nikhil Khadse in Nandurbar, and Murlidhar Mohol will be in Pune. Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will address an event in Bhatinda, Punjab, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia will be in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, while Jitendra Singh will be in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir. Secretary Panchayati Raj Vivek Bharadwaj said including the latest tranche, 2.19 crore property cards have been finalised so far.

Besides, 92 percent of the drone mapping has been done covering around 3.17 lakh of the over 3.44 lakh villages that were the target. The scheme’s targets are likely to be achieved by 2026.

Survey of rural land in India for Settlement and record of rights had last been completed many decades back. Moreover, Abadi (inhabited) area of villages were not surveyed/ mapped in many States. Hence, no record of Rights could be created for the Village Abadi areas.

The scheme aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India. The demarcation of inhabited land in rural areas would be done by the use of drone’s technology with the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Revenue Department, State Panchayati Raj Department and Survey of India

The outcome from the scheme would include creating/ updating the ‘record-of-rights’ in the revenue/property registers and issuance of property cards to the property owners.

So far, 31 States/UTs have joined the Scheme. Of these, Sikkim, Telangana and Tamil Nadu had participated only in the pilot phase of the Scheme.

Further, States of West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland and Meghalaya have not joined the Scheme.