MUMBAI: Mumbai’s new mayor Ritu Tawde is cracking down on illegal Bangladeshis in Mumbai, saying the civic health department must act against 237 individuals who were found to be using forged Indian birth certificates so that they could live and work in the city. Tawde said action must be taken against them within a month, or else she would propose the suspension of civic officials for alleged negligence.
She announced this in a meeting with civic health officials on Friday, as part of the BJP’s campaign to identify and act against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Tawde said that although health officials had deleted the birth certificates of these 237 individuals from the BMC’s portal, they were continuing to use these forged documents.
So far, eight first information reports (FIR) had been filed in the “birth certificate scam”, and more would be filed soon, she said, demanding that the BMC carefully scrutinise all birth certificates issued since January 1, 2016.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Tawde said civic health officials lacked the will to act and failed to explain why they took no action against those found issuing false birth certificates despite being handed proof.
Municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani said two BMC health officials had already been suspended and an inquiry was underway against another two officials on that issue. The BMC had suspended Pradeep Kashale and Dr Sanjay Funde from M-E ward in December 2024 for issuing birth certificates illegally.
Gagrani said the standard operating procedure (SOP) for issuing birth certificates had been determined by the central government, and the BMC is merely the implementing authority. “The BMC has no role to play in this,” he said. “Even here, the issue is about not following the SOPs rather than the intent. It is for the police to investigate and determine if there was a conspiracy at all,” he said.
Gagrani pointed out that a birth certificate could be issued by the BMC only in the first year of a child’s birth. Subsequently, birth certificates could be issued only by a magistrate. However, the BMC officials had issued birth certificates after the first year and hence the needle of suspicion pointed to them. “Currently, all birth certificates are QR coded and hence there is no scope of changing them,” he added.
Kirit Somaiya, who is spearheading the drive against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and was part of Friday’s meeting, said his investigation had found over 10,000 false birth certificates being issued across the city.
Leader of the Congress in the BMC, Ashraf Azmi, said, “If there are still illegal Bangladeshi nationals in Mumbai, it reflects the failure of 11 years of the central government. Also, a Right to Information (RTI) application by our senior leader had found that the central government couldn’t find any illegal Bangladeshi nationals in India,” Azmi said.
Meanwhile, Tawde on Wednesday had demanded that the BMC check the identity documents of all hawkers to identify and flush out illegal Bangladeshi nationals selling wares on the streets, as part of her ongoing campaign.
The civic body has undertaken a massive eviction drive against illegal hawkers across Mumbai, following strictures from the court and a strong demand for action from the state government. Major eviction drives have taken place in areas such as Dadar, Malad and Mulund.
But, on ground, there are challenges. “It is difficult to differentiate between who is licenced or not during an eviction drive against hawkers. All of them claim to be licensed and, by the time you verify their documents, the rest of them have fled with their wares,” said a senior BMC official.