Why in News ?

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

SVAMITVA Scheme

• SVAMITVA is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• The scheme aims to provide the ‘record of rights’ to village household owners in rural areas and issue Property Cards.
• Under SVAMITVA, the Union government aims to distribute 1.32 lakh property cards in 763 villages in six states namely Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka.
• As part of the pilot project of SVAMITVA, 101 villages in Maharashtra will be measured which includes 26 villages from Pune division, 25 in Nashik, 26 in Nagpur and 24 in Aurangabad division.

Implementation

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

How the scheme benefits ?

• The technology helps in increasing the accuracy of measurement and reducing the time required.
• Generally, measuring a village gaothan requires 15-30 days.
• After this, enquiries about ownership and preparation of the property documents and supplying them to the owner takes several months.
• On average, the entire process takes about a year.
• In the new process, the property documents and maps can be provided to the owner within a month.
• The scheme will pave the way for using property as a financial asset by villagers for taking loans and other financial benefits.
• The process relies on modern technology and will bring speed as well as transparency to the process of measurement of land in rural areas.

Source : PIB

Topic

Prelims : About the Scheme

GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Current Affairs Compilation : 12 October 2020