Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet government scheme for MPs — the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) — is facing obstacles from some unexpected quarters. Touted as a project that would transform how rural India lives and is governed, the project has found few takers among those who were tasked with bringing about this transformation.

Under the SAGY, each MP was required to identify one gram panchayat of his or her choice for developing it as an Adarsh Gram (Model Village) every year. The scheme was announced by PM Modi in his first Independence Day address from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort in 2014. As part of nation-building, the prime minister had urged Lok Sabha MPs to “make one village of his or her constituency a Model Village by 2016… after 2016, select two more villages… and after 2019… at least five model villages”.

For Rajya Sabha MPs, his call was to to “adopt one of the villages”. “If we provide one model village in each district of India, then the surrounding villages shall be automatically inspired to follow that model,” he emphasised in the clarion call in his Independence Day address.

With the joint strength of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha grossing 790 including nominated members, about two-thirds of the MPs are yet to select gram panchayats under Phase-4 of the scheme, The Indian Express reports. The figure comes even as more than six months have elapsed since the formation of the 17th Lok Sabha. At present, Lok Sabha has full strength while only five seats are vacant in Rajya Sabha.

The scheme’s growth picked up with great momentum in the initial phase. In the phase-1, the SAGY saw an impressive start with as many as 703 MPs adopting gram panchayats. However, Modi government’s scheme saw a gradual decline in subsequent phases thereafter as the number went down to 497 in Phase-2 and 301 in Phase-3.

According to official data, only 1,753 gram panchayats have been selected across four phases since the scheme was launched on October 11, 2014.

Moreover, till the end of December 2019, only 252 MPs have adopted gram panchayats under Phase-4 of SAGY — 208 members of Lok Sabha and 44 members of Rajya Sabha. The Ministry of Rural Development, the nodal agency for the scheme, offers no reason for the sluggish start of Phase-4.

Last month, a Parliamentary standing committee raised red flags on the sluggish pace of the implementation of the scheme.