About 4.4 lakh or 75 per cent of India's villages have achieved the open defecation free-plus status, Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said on Saturday.
An 'ODF Plus' village is one which has sustained its Open Defecation Free (ODF) status along with implementing either solid or liquid waste management systems.
Addressing media persons, Mr Shekhawat said over 4.43 lakh villages so far have declared themselves ODF Plus, which is a significant step towards achieving the goals of the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin by 2024-25.
He added that all villages in 14 states and Union Territories (UT) have achieved ODF Plus Status, of which four have been declared 'ODF Plus Model'.
The top performing states and UTs which have 100 per cent ODF Plus villages are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Tripura.
Of these, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim have have achieved the 'ODF Plus Model' status.
Out of the 4,43,964 ODF Plus villages so far, 2,92,497 villages are 'ODF Plus Aspiring' with arrangements for solid waste or liquid waste management systems, 55,549 are 'ODF Plus Rising' with arrangements for both solid and liquid waste management and 96,018 are 'ODF Plus model'.
Overall, 2,31,080 villages so far have arrangements for solid waste management, while 3,76,353 have arrangements for handling liquid waste, he said.
"The achievement of 75% ODF Plus villages is a significant milestone for India, as the country has moved from ODF to ODF Plus in Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin Phase II," Mr Shekhawat said.
The major components of the second phase of SBM (G) are sustaining the ODF status, and having systems in place to handle various waste, including solid or bio-degradable, plastic, liquid, and faecal sludge.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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