Prez Murmu to confer MP’s Khargone collector Shivraj Singh with ‘Bhoomi Samman’ on July 18

NEW DELHI: President Draupadi Murmu will confer the district collector of Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone, Shivraj Singh with the ‘Bhoomi Samman’ (Platinum Certificate) on Tuesday for his outstanding performance in the country in land governance.

Under the SVAMITVA (survey of villages Abadi and mapping with improvised technology in village area) scheme of the Union Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (RD&PR), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on National Panchayati Raj Day, April 24 in 2021, the award will be given to the district collectors of the country who have performed excellently for the establishment of clear ownership of property in rural inhabited areas.

The award ceremony will be held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, which will be presided over by President Murmu. Union minister for RD&PR Giriraj Singh and his deputy Faggan Singh Kulaste and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti will also attend the event.

For the first time, the ‘Bhoomi Samman’ will be given to the principal revenue commissioners of the states and district collectors in the field of revenue for land reforms.

Principal revenue commissioner of Madhya Pradesh Dr Sanjay Goel and collector of Khargone Shivraj Singh along with 14 other collectors of the state will be getting the award during the ceremony.

The SVAMITVA scheme was introduced in 9 states Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujrat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal in 2021 as a pilot phase.

On the successful completion of the first phase, the qualified states and districts will be awarded by the President at the conferring ceremony.

“It credits to our field staff of the revenue department of the district who worked enthusiastically for this reformative step for mapping of land parcels to establish the clear ownership of property in rural inhabited areas using drone technology”, the collector of Khargone told Millennium Post.

“Under the scheme, a ‘record of rights’ has been provided to village household owners with the issuance of legal ownership cards to the property owners”, the collector also said.

The mapping and recording of inhabited land areas in villages is being conducted by the collaborative effort of the Union and State Panchayati Raj ministries, the State Revenue Department and the Survey

of India.