Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday announced that people in the flood-ravaged areas of Bihar would be provided with foodgrains free of cost till the next cropping season.

"This is in view of large-scale destruction of crops due to flood," he told reporters on his return to Patna from an aerial survey of the inundated districts. 

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Earlier, he had arrived from Delhi in the morning and immediately left for an aerial survey of north Bihar districts accompanied by Union Minister of State for HRD M A A Fatmi, RJD MP Devendra Prasad Yadav and state Irrigation Minister Jagdanand Singh.

Prasad said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured that the Centre would not be lacking in providing funds and other assistance to tackle the flood problem and asked him to take stock of the flood situation.