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With reference to the Editorial Viewpoint "Power to the people” (Parsiana, May 21, 2013), we wish to place before your readers our side of the story which ultimately led to the removal of Darayas Master as president of the Surat Parsi Panchayat (SPP). They should be made aware of the following facts so that they may then objectively draw their own inferences:
Master, as SPP president, had expressed his inability to travel to Bombay (in mid March 2013) "due to a leg injury from an accident” (in October 2012). However, he had visited Bombay in December 2012 (to attend a family function) and again on January 25 and 26, 2013 for the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India meeting — a fact which your magazine has reported ("Line of control,” Parsiana, February 7, 2013). Quite clearly, Master’s "leg injury” was just a convenient excuse for him to abstain from attending the Parsee Surat Charity Fund (PSCF) meeting in Bombay where he would have been required to offer cogent explanations for his conduct.
At a meeting held in Bombay on March 14, 2013, six SPP trustees met trustees of PSCF and aired their grievances about the mismanagement of SPP and the manner in which Master had misplaced the faith and confidence his co-trustees had reposed in him. These six SPP trustees then addressed a letter to the Joint Charity Commissioner, Surat, claiming that the four applications filed previously by SPP for sale of its properties were "not in the interest of the trust” and that they should be withdrawn.
Master decided to withdraw only three of the four applications, deliberately leaving one pending sanction before the Joint Charity Commissioner. This action clearly illustrates that not only did he have some ulterior and sinister motive, but also that he blatantly ignored the wishes of the majority of SPP trustees.
On several occasions thereafter, PSCF trustees gave Master the opportunity to explain his position, which he declined to do.
The PSCF trustees had been periodically apprised about Master’s reprehensible conduct. How else can one explain the latter’s eagerness and impatience to sell SPP land (having a market value of Rs 1,00,000 per sq yd) for a paltry rate of Rs 19,000 per sq yd, even if the plot is partly encroached?
Following repeated allegations of corruption and mismanagement of trust properties belonging to SPP, the decision to remove Master as president/trustee of SPP was unanimously taken by five PSCF trustees on April 16, 2013.