Replying to the calling attention motion on the Yamuna Pushta fire which took the lives of 29 people on March 14, she said: ``We had promised in our manifesto that we would give land to relocate slum-dwellers. But land is with either Delhi Development Authority or Municipal Corporation of Delhi, both of which are not with the Delhi government.'' The Congress manifesto is also silent on the issue of full statehood, which would have brought land under the state.

The motion, which was raised by the Opposition BJP, saw many members cutting across party lines to insist that for once, without thinking of vote-bank politics, slums should be relocated.

Saying it was ``shameful that 25 lakh people live in slums in the Capital, where on one side there are buildings that cost crores of rupees,'' Dikshit added that by the next session, the government would be ready with a policy on relocation of slums.

She announced the formation of a Low-Cost Housing Corporation ``which would envisage construction of multi-storeyed buildings where land is available.''She also announced that compensation would be given to anyone who approaches the government as a victim of the fire. Ration cards would also be issued to victims of the fire without too much verification.

The Delhi government is looking into why there was no immediate response from the fire services during the fire. According to the Health Minister A.K. Walia, since the Delhi Fire Service was taken over by the Delhi government in November 1994 under the BJP regime, three fire stations were added but no new staff was provided.

In reply to a debate on status of gaon sabha lands in Delhi, Development Minister Yoganand Shastri today announced that Panchayati Raj would be implemented soon in Delhi. ``We want to hold Panchayati Raj elections so that the 371 villages in Delhi get their right of land and other facilities,'' he pointed out.

Delhi was exempted from the Panchayti Raj system as it has its own local bodies. But more than a dozen MLAs today, both of the ruling Congress and BJP, pointed out that lack of village self-governance was making villagers vulnerable to land-grabbers.

Speaking of the villages in their areas, Mukesh Sharma, Brahm Singh Tanwar, Tek Chand Sharma and Jai Bhagwan Goel said that surplus land with the government should be redistributed among landless villagers, they should be given malikana rights over the lands they hold and encroachments should be removed. Shastri also stressed that licences to go-sadans, against which complaints have been received, would be reviewed.