Bhubanewar: A high of over 65 lakh property cards under SVAMITVA Scheme has been handed over to property owners in over 50,000 villages in more than 230 districts across 10 States and 2 Union territories, including Odisha, on Saturday by PM Narendra Modi through video conferencing.
Though Odisha has emerged as a major state in implementing the SVAMITVA scheme of Modi govt, the State is seen lagging far behind vis-à-vis its other counterpart states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
WHAT IS SVAMITVA SCHEME?
A Central Sector Scheme, SVAMITVA was launched in the year 2020 and rolled out across the nation in year 2021.
The primary objective of the scheme has been to provide the ‘Record of Rights’ to household owners possessing houses in inhabited areas (Abadi) in villages with issuance of legal ownership rights (Property cards/Title deeds).
“Under the scheme, the land parcels in rural inhabited area of all the villages of the country are surveyed using drone technology. It is being implemented with the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Revenue Department, State Panchayati Raj Department and Survey of India (SoI). Statesneed to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SoI for implementation of the scheme,” stated the guidelines.
WHEN ODISHA SIGNED MoU with SOI?
As per official record, Odisha signed MoU with Survey of India on Feb 5, 2021.
WHY SVAMITVA LUANCHED BY MODI GOVT?
As State Revenue Department lacked land records of rural Abadi, which in turn prevented the rural property owners from utilizing their residential assets for availing bank loans. Moreover, rural land has growing become vulnerable to property related disputes.
As per the data with judicial grid, out of pending 15lakh civil suits, land related suits account for 5,698 as on Jan 1, 2025.
WHERE ODISHA TRAILS?
Odisha has a whopping 51,349 villages. The SVAMITVA scheme has been notified in only 3,054 villages. As on July 32, 2024, the State could conduct drone surveys in around 2709 villages. However the property cards have been prepared in only 43 villages.
And the number of property cards distributed stood at mere 1,500.
VILLAGES NOTIFIED | DRONE SURVEY DONE | PROPERTY CARDS | CARDS DELIVERED |
3,054 | 2709 | 43 VILLAGES | 1,500 |
A glance at the above numbers reveals the following, when seen in the backdrop of Pm Narendra Modi’s speech at the distribution ceremony today. The PM said:
“India has over 6 lakh villages, with drone surveys completed in nearly half of them”
- But In Odisha, the percentage of villages notified under the scheme stood at mere around 6%.
- Moreover, the drone survey of notified villages stood at around 88.7%
- When compared with bigger states like Maharashtra and UP, Odisha fare quite abysmally in the nation.
ODISHA VS TOP PERFORMERS
- In Maharashtra, there are 44000 villages
- The scheme notified in 37,819 or around 86% of total villages
- Drone surveyed in 37,209 or 98% of notified villages
- Property card prepared for over 35% of villages or over 12,800.
- Cards given to 19.78 lakh landholders
UTTAR PRADESH VS ODISHA
- The largest State of the country has over 1.06lakh villages.
- Scheme notified by Yogi govt in 90,908 villages or around 86% of villages
- The Yogi-let UP govt completed drone survey completed 100% of notified villages.
- Property cards have been completed in over 60,000 villages or around 66% of villages
- Total cards delivered to landholders stood at around 85.2 lakh.
The BOTTOMLINE is Odisha Revenue Department has to pull up its socks to avail the benefits of the scheme launched by Modi govt.
