A new governing body in S B Garda Trust, one of the oldest Parsi educational trusts in south Gujarat, has brought to an end differences simmering for two decades and also controversies involving its earlier members. The new governing body has promised to restore the institution’s past glory despite court cases still pending against faculty members, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) and the state government.
Article by Yagnesh Mehta | Times of India
There were earlier 4,000 students enrolled in the trust’s S B Garda College of Arts and P K Patel College of Commerce, B P Baria Science Institute and Dinshaw Daboo Law College. However, because of the controversies, the total number of students in these institutions has dropped to 1,500.
The new governing body has Dara Deboo as president, Kersi Deboo as secretary and Yazdi Kasad as treasurer. It also has six members in Zubin Bharda, Nevil Deboo, Hormaz Awari, Jal Garda, Dinshaw Garda and Jimmy Garda.
“There were many controversies and cases. And because of these reasons, election could not be held in CNZ Madresa Trust, which is the parent body of Garda Trust. After election was held in Madresa Trust, a new governing body has been appointed,” said Kersi Deboo.
“The colleges have suffered badly in the past two decases. The number of students in our three colleges has come down to 1,500 from 4,000. Students had stopped enrolling even when our fee is Rs 2,500 fees per annum. They were ready to go to a private college that charged a fee of Rs 25,000. The new governing body is determined to change the situation,” Kersi said.
The trust plans to admit maximum number of students and also start new courses. “The trust wants to put an end to all issues with the university and other parties. All grant-in-aid seats will be filled to give maximum benefit to students. If needed more teachers will also be appointed,” Dara Deboo said.
“The trust will be start a nursing college, an English medium BEd college and a physiotherapy college. We will also start new courses such as MA psychology, MA English, MCom, LLM, MSc (microbiology), MSc (chemistry) and MSc (zoology) in our colleges,” Dara added.