The country has crossed a milestone of 50 thousand open defecation-free (ODF) Plus villages. Among the top performing States are Telangana with 13 thousand 960 ODF Plus villages followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.<br />''<br />''Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen Phase-II was launched in February 2020 with the aim to ensure that all villages in the country can declare themselves as ODF Plus by the end of 2024.<br />''<br />''The Ministry of Jal Shakti has said, the mission towards becoming ODF Plus has several components including biodegradable waste management including the GOBARdhan Scheme, Grey water management, Plastic waste management and Faecal sludge management.<br />''<br />''The Ministry has said, ODF Plus villages have been divided into three categories, Aspiring, Rising, and Model, to showcase their progress.<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">This has created a healthy, competitive spirit, resulting in people participation for accelerated implementation of sustaining sampoorn swachhata. The Ministry said, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, more than one crore people across 22 thousand gram panchayats participated in various sanitation activities. </span><br />