Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday launched the ‘Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas’ (SVAMITVA) scheme and hailed it as a “historic move” that will transform villages in rural India. Through this scheme Modi said, no bank can deny loans to people with proper documents.

Through a virtual video conference, PM Modi interacted with the beneficiaries of the scheme and said that it will enable people in rural areas to use property as a “financial asset” for taking loans. “The scheme will also help villagers in taking loans. If they have proper documents of their land and properties, no bank can deny them loans,” he highlighted.

The beneficiaries of the new scheme would include 1 lakh property holders who would get “property cards” by their respective state governments, a statement by the PMO said. These beneficiaries come from over 760 villages across 6 states.

Emphasising on the changes brought in rural India infrastructure under his tenure, Modi said that “today, nearly two crore poor families in the villages have got pucca houses.” This was different from the past decades when “crores of families in villages across the country did not have a home of their own,” he added.

The Prime Minister highlighted that unlike the “people who stayed in power for long” he would not leave the rural parts of the country to fend for themselves.

At the virtual event, Modi paid tributes to socialist icon Jayaprakash Narayan and RSS stalwart Nanaji Deshmukh on their birth anniversaries that coincided with the scheme’s launch. “ I’m delighted that such great work is being done on a day that has historic importance,” he said.