New Delhi, March 12
In a blaze that broke out at a shoe factory on this morning in Mangolpuri located in the outskirts of Delhi, four persons, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed and a 22-year-old man was injured.

According to the police, the fire allegedly started due to short-circuit in the electrical system. "A shoe box that was lying near the electrical meter caught fire, which spread to the highly combustible rexine material in the factory," said a senior police official. The police said that the factory did not have a licence to operate.

The deceased are named as Salman (13), Chandrashekhar (20), who belonged to Rajasthan and Kuldeep (22) and Rajkumar (25) were from Bihar. They died due to asphyxiation. The injured is identified as Mithilesh (18), who belongs to Bihar. The victims were asleep at the time of the incident and were unable to get out.

The police has registered a case of "causing death due to negligence". The factory owners are absconding.

The police was informed about the incident about 3.50 am. Four fire tenders were sent to the spot. The fire was doused after an hour.

About seven months ago, the factory was constructed on the ground floor of a four-storey building. Jai Narayan had rented out the ground floor to two persons, Amar Singh and Rajpal, alias Vicky, for Rs 9,000 a month to run the factory, which is operated by 20 workers, including 10 women.

Investigators said that the five victims had a shift from 9 pm on Monday to 9 am on Tuesday. About 1 am, they fell asleep.

"The factory owner locked the rear door from the outside. The victims could not escape from the front entrance, due to the material that was blocking their path," said the official. The police believes that Mithilesh, the only one injured, may have hid in the toilet. The victims could not escape from the windows that were sealed shut and had iron grills on them.

The victims were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri. Doctors there declared four of them dead. Mithilesh was later shifted to Safdarjung Hospital where his condition is said to be stable.

New Delhi, March 12
Speaker of the Delhi Assembly Yoganand Shastri today said that notices for a total of 844 questions have been received by the Assembly Secretariat from the legislators so far for discussion in the House meetings commencing tomorrow.

Shastri said that the government will present a number of bills, including 'The Delhi Water Board (Amendment) Bill, 2013' in the House along with the annual Budget 2013-14. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who is also holding the portfolio of the Finance Department, will present the Budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 on March 20. He said that the Delhi VAT (Amendment) Bill and the Delhi Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill are also expected in the upcoming session.

The Budget session of the Delhi Assembly is likely to see an aggressive BJP taking on the government on a range of issues like safety of women, hike in power and water tariff and delay in regularization of unauthorized colonies.

Leader of the Opposition V.K. Malhotra said that the BJP will try to corner the government on law and order situation and "failure" of the Transport Department to regulate public transport in the city even after massive public outrage in the wake of the December 16 gangrape. Malhotra said despite public protests following the incident, the Delhi government has not done anything to regulate public transport so that women can travel safely in the city.

He said the party will also "forcefully" raise a host of issues, including rising power and water tariff, delay in regularization of unauthorized colonies, alleged corruption in various government departments, increasing prices of essential commodities and pitiable conditions of roads across the city.

The party has decided to attack the government for its "failure" to make Yamuna pollution-free in spite of spending over Rs 3,500 crore in the past few years. The Congress, however, said that it was ready to confront the Opposition and they should not be shying away from participating in the discussions.