New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday distributed around 65 lakh Svamitva property cards and said it will bolster economic activities and help in poverty alleviation.

He also interacted with some beneficiaries through video conferencing, and said the scheme will help people in getting loans and benefits of government schemes.

These property cards are being distributed to beneficiaries across more than 50,000 villages in 10 states - Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and two Union Territories off Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.

"Around 2.24 crore beneficiaries in villages will now have Svamitva property cards after 65 lakh cards are distributed today," the Prime Minister said. "Property rights are a major challenge across the world. Years ago, the United Nations held a study, which revealed people did not have legal documents for property rights in several countries.

The UN has said property rights are important for poverty alleviation," he said. The Prime Minister said an eminent economist had opined that property in villages is a "dead capital" because people cannot do anything with it, and it can't help increase their income. "India was also impacted by this challenge. People in villages have property worth lakhs of crores, but they did not have papers for it.

There were disputes, properties were snatched, and even banks did not provide loans over it," he said. "Previous governments should have taken steps to do something about it but nothing much was done," he added.

Modi said Dalits, backward classes and tribals were the worst affected by this. "After getting legal property rights, lakhs of people have taken loans. They have used this money to start their businesses. Many of these are farmers, for whom this property card is a guarantee of financial security," he said.