With the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) "granting permission for Parsi/Irani Covid victims to be consigned to the Covid dakhma at the doongerwadi” and the pallbearers agreeing to carry Covid afflicted corpses to the dakhmas once their demands are conceded to in writing, the consignment of such corpses can commence.
"My workers (pallbearers) have told me they will agree to consign bodies of the Covid infected to the designated dakhma only if certain demands are met in writing,” Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha president Chandbibi Zaidi told Parsiana on June 13, 2022. The demands include requirements for protection against infection in the course of their duty, she stated. A charter has reportedly been
submitted, but Zaidi stated that she has not heard from the board that they have accepted the requests. Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairwoman Armaity Tirandaz did not reply to Parsiana’s request for a conversation on the subject.
Earlier, on June 4, a WhatsApp message signed by BPP trustees Tirandaz, Viraf Mehta, Xerxes Dastur and Anahita Desai stated that the pall bearers have, "after a healthy discussion” with them and their union leader Zaidi and after "agreeing with their requests,” have "graciously and selflessly agreed to lend their services to give khand (carry corpses of) a Parsi/Irani Covid victim. Henceforth… (if) a Parsi/Irani passes due to Covid, his/her body can get taken to the Doongerwadi and consigned to the dakhma that has been identified only for Covid victims.”
A WhatsApp message dated June 3, signed by four trustees of the BPP — Tirandaz, Mehta, Desai and Hoshang Jal states that in a meeting with Prashant Gaikwad, assistant commissioner of Bombay Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) D Ward (which has jurisdiction over the Towers of Silence) has "immediately instructed his staff to prepare an official letter. The message stated that Shehnaaz Khambatta, BPP’s deputy chief executive officer, Doongerwadi manager Vistaspar Mehta and social worker Rumy Zarir who had unsuccessfully contested the May 29, 2022 BPP trusteeship election also attended the meeting. The previous board of trustees had identified a dakhma and had it cleaned for the consignment of coronavirus victims.
The medical officer of D Ward has on June 3 written to Tirandaz stating that he will "hence onward issue the necessary permission for disposal of dead bodies of Parsi and Irani Zoroastrians died of Covid 19 disease, subject to strict adherence to the protocol and standard operating procedure for handling dead bodies… laid down by the Supreme Court of India (see ‘Dakhma reprieve,’ Events and Personalities, Parsiana, February 21-March 6, 2022).”