Aizawl, Jan 20: Mizoram, the “first among the northeastern states”, has distributed property cards under the Centre’s village survey scheme to 2,909 beneficiaries since April 2023, officials said on Sunday.
They said 1,754 property cardholders from 18 villages in the state were among 65 lakh beneficiaries across 10 states and two Union Territories (UT), who were handed over property cards by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
The Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA), a scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, provides a ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners with the issuance of legal ownership cards to property owners by mapping land parcels using drone technology.
“Mizoram became the first state in the northeastern region to distribute property cards on April 24, 2023. Since then, a total of 2,909 property cards have been distributed to the owners,” an official said.
Around 35,000 property cards will also be distributed in the state in the coming phases, he said.
Mizoram Governor General VK Singh virtually participated in the nationwide property cards distribution event held on Saturday, an official statement said here.
The governor lauded the SVAMITVA scheme and expressed his pride in Mizoram being the first state in the northeast region to distribute property cards under the central programme, it said.
He commended the state’s Land Revenue and Settlement Department for its efforts and urged it to continue working towards the scheme’s objectives.
Singh also congratulated the beneficiaries and extended his best wishes to them.
The SVAMITVA scheme was launched by the prime minister on April 24, 2020.
The scheme aimed at creating records of rights in revenue documents for inhabited areas in villages using drone and GIS technology., another official said.
These property cards serve not only as legal documentation but also as collateral for bank loans and various other important purposes, he said.
The Mizoram government signed an agreement with Survey of India on July 8, 2021 for the effective implementation of the scheme, according to the officials.
Drone surveys were taken up in villages on December 9, 2021 and the exercise completed on December 2, 2024, covering 319 rural areas across nine districts of the state, they said. (PTI)
