The government has released a central share of 12,230 Crore rupees to the states in connection with the implementation of its flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA. <br/><br/>Rural Development Minister Birender Singh underlined that this fund release will take care of the pending wage liability of the states for the previous Financial Year 2015-16 and help the states to run the programme during the new financial year 2016-17. He said government is committed to ensuring flow of adequate resources for fulfilling the programme objectives. <br/><br/>The ministry has also decided to maintain 60:40 wage-material ratio at the district level now to ensure creation of good quality assets in the rural areas. <br/><br/>Rebutting the reports published in a section of media that there are arrears of wages of over eight thousand crore rupees under MGNREGA for the 2015-2016 financial year, Mr Singh said, in fact, the year 2015-16 has registered expenditure under MGNREGA to the tune of 41,371 crore rupees, which is the highest expenditure under the programme since its inception. Out of this expenditure 30,139 crore rupees has gone towards payment of wages. <br/><br/>In 2016-17, as part of their Labour Budget, the States have proposed to construct 8.82 lakh farm ponds and 10.39 lakh organic compost pits to boost the agriculture sector. <br/><br/>The States have also proposed to construct 33 lakh Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) as part of Swachh Bharat Mission and 63,000 Anganwadi centre buildings to strengthen rural infrastructure. Our correspondent reports, the road map for 2016-17 will focus on accelerating the momentum gained in employment generation while further strengthening the monitoring system. <br/>