Two months, 3% of shops inspected: Why Mumbai’s Marathi signboard drive has stalled

4 min readMumbaiJul 25, 2026 08:26 AM IST Names of shops written in Marathi script are seen at Dadar in Mumbai on 24 July 2026. Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee.Two months after Mumbai’s shops and commercial establishments were given a deadline to put up Marathi signboards, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) enforcement drive has inspected about 3 per cent of them, civic records show. Of the 36,773 establishments covered in that period, 1,124 were found to be without Marathi signboards, a non-compliance rate of about 3 per cent among those checked.Data submitted to the BMC’s Law Committee shows the survey to identify non-compliant establishments has been slowed by acute staff shortages as well as the deployment of civic personnel for the Census and the Special Intensive Rev