Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: As the campaigning for municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra reached its crescendo over the weekend, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured to make Mumbai free of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, however, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) questioned the numbers of deportations so far and asked what the government at the BJP-led Centre and state was doing for past decade.
“We will make Mumbai free of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” said Fadnavis, who is also the state home minister, while releasing the manifesto of the BJP-Shiv Sena-RPI (Athawale) alliance in the run up to the elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Fadnavis was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale.
“Over the last one to one-and-a-half years (the administration and police) has done a good job…the highest number of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas have been deported…in fact, the Maharashtra government with the help of Indian Institute of Technology is developing an AI-based tool, which will help us identify the Bangladeshis and Rohingyas and (subsequently) help in their deportation,” said Fadnavis.
According to him, it is at an experimental stage and has attained 60 per cent reliability. “We will go for 100 per cent and then deploy it,” he said, adding that the Bangladeshis nationals infiltrate into India through the West Bengal border.
“Then they move (to Mumbai and other parts of the country), secure documents…they look like us…they speak like us (and mix up),” he said, however, reiterated, “We will detect and deport Bangladeshis and Rohingyas.”
The Congress, however, asked Fadnavis to provide the data on Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas who have been deported.
“If the government has indeed identified the highest number of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, it should release the figures,” AICC secretary and Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said.
On the other hand, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Uddhav Thackeray said, “They are ruling the Centre for 12 years…they are in the State…how did they come.”
Besides, he also mocked the BJP and the Shiv Sena for forging alliances with Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM in certain municipal councils.