Mumbai: The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has launched a mental health corpus aimed at providing financial and...
Bombay Parsi Panchayat Articles
Parsi Tower of Silence gets plaque with a view
Mumbai’s historic Parsi Tower of Silence cemetery on Malabar Hill, established in 1672, has been honored with a...
A Trust deficit that needs to be bridged urgently: Noshir Dadrawala
Politics is too serious a matter to leave to politicians. Rightly did Federick Lewis Donaldson in a sermon at Westminster Abbey, London, on March 20, 1925 say: "The Seven Social Sins are:1. Wealth...
Hormuz Mehta Speaks About The Recent Fracas
Below is a message we have received from Hormuz D. Mehta. Hormuz writes… When I got married earlier this year, I gave a commitment to my wife that I would not embroil myself in BPP politics,...
Kersi Randeria Speaks About The Recent Fracas
Below is a message we have received from Kersi Randeria, BPP Trustee. Kersi writes… I am a Trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, and I believe in and am committed to upholding the dignity of this...
Parsi Punchayet trustees fight in court, file assault cases against each other
A Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee and its former chairman filed criminal complaints against each other after a fight at Ballard Pier magistrate court on Thursday. Kersi Randeria, the trustee...
‘Unwelcome visitor’ mars BPP press meet
High drama ensued yesterday at Churchgate Garware Club's fifth floor party room during a Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) press conference. BPP chairman Yezdi Desai and others trustees had organised the...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet: Plot thickens in tussle between BPP trustees
The issue began back in 2013 when Musharraf Yusuf Kader wanted to purchase the sale of tenancy rights of a property which falls under the ‘pagdi’ system. THE LEGAL spat between trustees of the...
Noshir Dadrawala Responds to Times Of India’s Report on House Allotment to Dr. Farokh Master
Recently The Times of India published an entire article based on an anonmyous Whatsapp message. The journalist Bella Jaisinghani took this Whatsapp message and spun an entire conspiracy theory...
Armaity Tirandaz wins Bombay Parsi Panchayat seat
Armaity Tirandaz won the one seat up for trusteeship to the Bombay Parsi Panchayat elections (BPP) held across five polling booths in the city on Saturday. An elderly lady at the Bombay Parsi...
BPP Chairman Yazdi Desai: In Conversation
Parsis need reservations in educational institutes: chairman, Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman, Bombay Parsi Punchayet Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) is the world’s largest Parsi-Zoroastrian...
Parsi Punchayat allowed to allot flats
The Bombay Parsi Punchayat (BPP) on Thursday won a major reprieve when the charity commissioner lifted its stay on allotment of flats to deserving community members. "Over 200 flats will be freed...
Election unlocks Bombay Parsi Panchayet’s 200 Crore Assets
Appointment of new trustees at Bombay Parsi Punchayet will end the charity commissioner's stay on its properties The Parsi community voted on Sunday to choose new trustees and chairman for the...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet Announces Schedule for 2015 Trustee Elections
Owing to the vacancies created upon the completion of the term of office of Trustees Mr. Dinshaw Mehta, Mrs. Arnavaz Mistry, Mr. Khojeste Mistree, Mr. Yazdi Desai and Mr. Jimmy Mistry and the...
Amicable End to Stalemate at Doongerwadi
An Interim Settlement has been reached between the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha and the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. Via Parsiana "All is well that ends well”. The Parsi community can heave a sigh of relief as...
3,000-yr Parsi tradition of final rites threatened by strike
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet received a notice of a strike by the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, which also includes workers who lay the community’s deceased to rest; the notice came after negotiations for a...
Khandias: The Keepers of Doongerwadi
Among Parsis, Khandias are a group of people spoken about only in hushed tones. It is their job to bathe and carry the deceased of the community to the Towers of Silence for vultures, and then tend...
Open Parsi dokhmas to kin, says protesting workers’ union
The Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, representing the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP) 220 Class IV workers, has asked the trust to allow relatives of the deceased into the roofless towers where dead bodies are...
Parsis volunteer to turn corpse-bearers
BPP Trustee Scopes Out Substitutes If Khandias Strike About 25 Parsis, normally employed as plumbers, engineers and businessmen, will don crisp white uniforms and work as pallbearers or khandias if...
Police Orders Fresh probe into cash at Bombay Parsi Punchayet office
In May, cops submitted a report concluding investigations. Community activists, four trustees smelt a rat. Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has ordered a re-investigation in the case of Rs 21 lakh...
Parsi Punchayet sweepers, pallbearers threaten strike
On Monday, over 230 Class IV workers including the Tower of Silence's pallbearers sported red Gandhi topis with their union's name “Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha“ emblazoned across. This was the first phase...
Clarification with regard to consequences of the Settlement of 17th February 2015 in the Ban on Priests Case
On 27th April 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court approved the Settlement arrived at in February 2015 between Messrs. Kanga and Khusrokhan and the BPP Trustees. The following is the factual position on...
Punchayet Trustee Quits Before Polls
Slams Parsi Co-Trustees For Mismanagement A Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee, Muncherji Cama, resigned from his post on Friday just a few months ahead of the next round of BPP elections. Article...
Muncherji Cama Resigns as Trustee of Bombay Parsi Punchayet
In a letter to his fellow trustees, Mr. Muncherji Cama; one of the seven sitting trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet resigned from his position. Below is his letter of resignation circulated to...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet Trustees’ kin line up for elections
In the run up to the polls, which are likely to be held on October, names of some trustees' kin have started doing the rounds. Article by Kamlesh Pednekar | DNA Elections to the Bombay Parsi...
Mumbai’s vulture breeding programme has fizzled out: BNHS
After managing to have a successful programme elsewhere in India, BNHS's Dr Vibhu Prakash, head of the BNHS Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme spoke to dna's Tanea Bandopadhyay on the status of...
Parsi punchayet cracks down on bribing of voters
For the first time in a century, BPP introduces voluntary code of conduct for aspiring trustees, restricts candidates to spending no more than Rs 3 lakh for campaigning The upcoming Bombay Parsi...
Parsi Punchayet Trustees Nearly Come To Blows
With weeks to go for elections, chairman and trustee trade allegations, and one nearly hurls a chair. The hallowed board room of the 300-year-old Bombay Parsi Punchayet witnessed acrimony on Tuesday...
Code of Conduct to govern BPP Elections
Dinshaw Tamboly writes in regarding the Code of Conduct for the Bombay Parsi Punchayet Elections. Trustees, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Mumbai. Ladies & Gentlemen, Some of us (former trustees...
Without vultures, fate of Parsi ‘sky burials’ uncertain
It is a thorny issue that beleaguers this fast diminishing community daily – how to preserve a 3,000-year-old ritual of giving “sky burials” to the Parsi dead amid a nearly extinct vulture...
Clarifications in The Banning of Priests Case
Clarification issued jointly by Jamsheed Kanga & Homi Khusrokhan There appear to be several misunderstandings concerning the Settlement entered into on 17.02.’15 in the matter of the Notice...
BPP trustees at loggerheads over allowing Film shootings in Parsi baugs
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees are sparring over allowing film shootings in the city's Parsi baugs. While a majority of the seven BPP trust ees are against allowing film and advertisement...
Parsi Punchayet calls truce on priests issue
The Parsi Punchayet and two prominent Parsis Jamshed Kanga and Homi Khusrokhan reached a settlement on February 19 to put an end to a legal dispute that had been on since 2009 over the ban of two...
Parsi Priests’ Court Battle with BPP Likely To End Amicably
Two priests were banned from fire temples after they were found to have performed ceremonies for Parsis who chose to be cremated and children of non-Parsi fathers The Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s (BPP)...
Code of Conduct Proposed For Future Bombay Parsi Punchayet Elections
The following PROPOSED CODE OF CONDUCT TO GOVERN FUTURE BPP ELECTIONS appeared in Jam-e-Jamshed edition of 11 Jan 2015 With a view to provide a level playing field to all individuals contesting...
Parsi Punchayet senior executive quits in frustration
Cawas Panthaki was trapped in crossfire between warring factions of the trust: Sources Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP) senior executive B officer Cawas Panthaki resigned from his position recently...
B. Merwan & Co. : No One Ever Asked Us.
Aashim Tyagi has some beautiful images of B. Merwan & Co. the most famous Irani café in Mumbai. At the start of the year there was a frenzy in Mumbai concerning the news that Merwan was closing...
Unaccounted cash at Parsi trust office: The theories don’t add up
MULTIPLICITY ast week, trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the largest representative organisation of ParsiZoroastrians, found nearly Rs22 lakh and some gold jewellery in a locked cupboard...
Police on the lookout for source of cash recovered from Parsi Panchayat CEO
he MRA Marg police have initiated investigations to trace the source of the cash found in the cupboard of deceased Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) CEO, Mehlo Colah, last week. Rs 20 lakh in cash was...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet finds Rs 21 lakh, gold jewellery in late CEO’s cupboard
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has found Rs 21.43 lakh and gold jewellery in a cupboard belonging to its late CEO, Mehli Colah. The discovery has set tongues wagging in the community as earlier...
Doongerwadi pallbearers threaten strike fearing non-payment of bonus
UPDATE: The article below appeared in the Mumbai Times on August 10. Further to that, as per an email communique, the issue has been resolved. BPP Chairman Dinshaw Mehta mentioned that two payments...
Noshir Dadrewala on the Banning Priests Controversey
Noshir H. Dadrawala writes I have read with interest the response of sitting BPP trustees, Mr. Khojeste Mistree and Mr. Yazdi Desai to the open letter written by former BPP trustee Mr. Dinshaw...
Jamsheed Kanga and Homi Khushrokhan on the Banning Priests Controversey
From Jamsheed Kanga & Homi Khushrokhan to BPP Jamsheed G...
Khojeste Mistree & Yazdi Desai Respond to Dinshaw Tamboly
From Khojeste Mistree & Yazdi Desai to Parsi Times This case goes much beyond just banning 2 Renegade Priests……. Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai, BPP Trustees In recent days, some members of...
Feud with the Wadias begins to pinch Bombay Parsi Punchayet
Feud with the Wadias begins to pinch - Parsi Punchayet runs out of funds, stops two grants With the Wadias unhappy over the administration of Parsi colonies freezing Rs 120 crore in banks, the...
Ban on Priests: An Open Letter By Dinshaw Tamboly
Published herewith is a letter received from good friend of Parsi Khabar; and ex-BPP Trustee Mr. Dinshaw Tamboly. July 14, 2014 Trustees, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Mumbai. Ladies &...
An Open Letter to BPP Sr Executive Mr Pheroze Patel
From time to time, Parsi Khabar will publish letters it receives from readers on community matters. Below is one such letter sent to us by a regular Parsi Khabar reader Arzan J. Ghadially. ...
Parsis to meet Heptullah in July over reservations
The trustees of the Bombay Parsee Punchayet (BPP) will meet minority affairs minister Najma Heptullah in the first week of July to discuss reservations for the community in medical and engineering...
Ex-CJI backs out of case against ‘rebel’ Parsi priests
Rejection of request to mediate is a blow to the community which has already spent over Rs 3 crore in litigation Former chief justice of India, Sarosh Kapadia, has rejected a request to mediate in...
Wadias want back Parsi colonies their ancestors developed
The Wadias have taken exception to the BPP using the rent from these properties to pay the salaries of Parsi priests Industrialist Nusli Wadia, whose family developed five housing colonies for the...
300 trucks of Mud dumped at Doongerwadi kicks up a storm
Four trustees of Parsi Punchayet allege the 'debris' was loosely dumped without finding out if it is fit for plantation, and poses a threat of landslides during monsoon; BPP chairman rubbishes...
Parsis urge leaders to drop case against ‘rebel’ priests
Bombay Parsi Punchayet, which has already spent Rs 3 crore on litigation, insists on pursuing the case even though many in the community feel the issue could easily be settled out of court. The...