``The government was already considering a proposal to ban hazardous plastics in the city. After the fire, we decided to bring a Bill in the Assembly to formally stop use of plastics,'' Dikshit said.

Calling the CM's attention to the tragedy in Yamuna Pushta slums near Vijayghat, the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdish Mukhi and lone Janata Dal MLA Shoaib Iqbal said that indiscriminate use of PVC and poly-sheets used in slum-building had caused the tragedy. ``There have been fires in Delhi, but nothing worse than this. People died because of the choking fumes from burning plastic and not from the fire. The people in the jhuggis pick up PVC and polybags from the city's garbage dumps and plaster these on the walls and roofs of their semi-pucca structures.

Quoting Fire Service statistics, he said the city had witnessed a lot of fires but never anything so destructive. ``In the past 15 years, the number of jhuggi fires had lessened, but the tragedy has increased. Such are the living conditions in Yamuna Pushta that the people were trapped in the fumes of plastic fire and could not reach a telephone to call the Fire Service.''

Mukhi, playing ``the role of a constructive opposition to the Congress'', requested the CM to ban PVC and polybags in Delhi: ``We should follow the other states who banned use of polybags and stop this kind tragedy from repeating itself.'' `Instead of doling out monetary compensation, the government should give safe construction material to fire victims,'' Mukhi suggested. And this time, Dikshit seemed to be in a mood to accept the suggestion, though she strongly denied any laxity in relief work.