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Marble City Hospital and Research Centre, a 150-bed multi specialty hospital, was officially declared open on September 16, 2013 in Jabalpur’s Napier Town on land owned by the Parsi Anjuman Jabalpur. The Anjuman had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a team of doctors before constructing the hospital after converting a part of its property for commercial use with permission obtained from The Municipal Corporation of that city in Madhya Pradesh, mentions an email sent to Parsiana by Dorab C. Bajan, president of the Anjuman.

 

 

For some years no charitable work could be undertaken by the trust due to paucity of funds. Maintaining its properties had become an onerous task, Bajan explains. To add to the problems, one Ramesh Singh Thakur filed a false civil suit claiming the property in Napier Town to be his own. In order to conduct the litigation, the Anjuman had to liquidate fixed deposits to pay court fees and engage the services of advocates. Thakur’s suit was dismissed by the court, and subsequent appeals in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh and the Supreme Court (SC) were also denied. Senior advocate Tehmton Andhyarujina, former Advocate General of Maharashtra and Solicitor General of India, was asked by the Anjuman to represent it in the SC, which he did pro bono, mentions the grateful Anjuman president.

 

Bajan writes that at its peak Jabalpur was home to about 600 Parsis, while today the number is down to a mere 42. The first settlers probably went there in the mid-19^th century when the Railways first came to Jabalpur. The Parsi Anjuman was registered as a public trust under the Madhya Pradesh Public Trusts Act in 1953, and its membership comprises Parsi Zoroastrians of the Jabalpur Division of that state. On the current board of trustees are Soli R. Daruwalla, vice president, Kerman N. Batliwalla, honorary secretary, Phiroze Panveliwalla, honorary treasurer and Parvez J. Driver, member, with Bajan at its apex as president, the email mentions.