New Delhi, Jun 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project - the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) - didn't receive big response from his own cabinet colleagues in its third phase. Nearly half of the cabinet ministers are yet to adopt a gram panchayat, reported The Print.

According to data available with Ministry of Rural Development, 12 of the 26 cabinet ministers and four of the 11 ministers with independent charge are yet to adopt a gram panchayat. The Prime Minister adopted his third gram panchayat in July 2017.

The list of cabinet ministers who haven’t yet adopted a gram panchayat in the third phase includes Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Birender Singh, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Prakash Javadekar, Suresh Prabhu, DV Sadananda Gowda, Ananth Kumar, Anant Geete and Arun Jaitley.

The four ministers with independent charge who are yet to pick a gram panchayat in the third-phase are Shripad Naik, Jitendra Singh, Giriraj Singh and K J Alphons. Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan too has not adopted a gram panchayat in the third phase.

Overall, only 163 Lok Sabha MPs and 40 Rajya Sabha MPs have so far adopted gram panchayats in the third phase of SAGY. The Lok Sabha has a strength of 545 MPs while the Rajya Sabha has 245 MPs. Under the scheme, lawmakers have to adopt a gram panchayat in their constituencies for its all-round development.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 03:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).