State ropes in developers to weed out illegal Bangladeshis

Mumbai: Developers and contractors in Mumbai are being made to submit undertakings saying they do not employ any illegal Bangladeshis in their projects, minister of state for home Yogesh Kadam said in the legislative assembly on Tuesday while speaking about efforts to weed out illegal foreigners living in the state. Borivali MLA Sanjay Upadhyay claimed that over 5,000 illegal Bangladeshis were employed by contractors of various infrastructure projects in Mumbai Responding to a calling attention motion raised by Mumbai legislators from the treasury benches, Kadam said, “The Mumbai guardian minister recently held a meeting with the police, following which the government has started collecting the undertakings from developers and contractors.” He said 2,935 illegal Bangladeshis had been arrested in the state since January 2023, among whom 587 had been deported back to the neighbouring country. Dahisar’s BJP MLA Manisha Chaudhari said online food delivery platforms routinely employed illegal Bangladeshis, while many hutments in slums were rented out to them without any police verification. Kandivali East BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar said the police should launch combing operations instead of waiting for complaints against intruders while Borivali MLA Sanjay Upadhyay, also from the BJP, said that over 5,000 illegal Bangladeshis were employed by contractors of various infrastructure projects.