Noida will use drones to map land in 300 villages

NOIDA: What do hundreds of villages in the district have to do with drones? For the first time, these unmanned aerial vehicles will be hovering over the skies of 322 villages under Jewar, Dankaur, Bisrakh and Dadri blocks, flying at regular intervals to capture images of the land below.

The initiative is part of a scheme that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 24. It was conceived to strengthen the gram panchayats by updating the records of properties and assets by providing property cards to the household owners. Despite staying in the same village for several generations, the rural population in Uttar Pradesh does not have any document to prove ownership of residential land.

Only the inhabited portion of the village where people have built residential properties would be covered under the Samitva scheme for preparing a comprehensive database of the residential clusters.

Nodal officer for the scheme, additional district magistrate Diwakar Singh, said that the schedule is being prepared and ground activity has been initiated across 122 rural villages that will be covered in the first phase. “By August 15, we would complete the entire project and cover 322 villages,” said Singh. He added that the revenue department would update the land records and execute deeds.

“Owner of any residential property in a village would get a property card mentioning the details of his/her dwelling unit. This will not only settle long-standing disputes but also help villagers in seeking loans from financial institutions by mortgaging their property,” said KS Yadav, district panchayat raj officer. The officer added that taxes can also be collected in the future once the property title gets verified.

Survey of India will provide the drone technology and operate reference station technology for capturing images and mapping the data.

Meanwhile, Yadav is trying to conduct an awareness program to sensitise villages and create awareness about the exercise.

Singh added that Survey of India is likely to confirm the dates by July 25. Across Uttar Pradesh, more than 53,000 villages have to be surveyed.