In the past few months, numerous members of our community have time and again sent in letters and queries to Parsi Times, directed towards various aspects of the BPP (Bombay Parsi Panchayet) – with regard to actions taken and yet to be taken, policies and other grievances and inquiries. Due to the lack of direct connect and communication between the BPP and the community, a lot of news either gets misinterpreted or lost in translation, causing much distress to the community and lack of faith in the BPP. Every individual in our community has the right to ask questions and know the ongoings at the BPP.

Earlier, the BPP used to issue a periodical which attempted to keep the community informed about its activities, but that has been discontinued for some time now. There is a growing need within the community to be kept updated of BPP’s activities and policies, especially after the new BPP Board has swung into action and is dynamically managing various issues. In keeping with the same, Parsi Times has come to the fore and taken up the responsibility to provide the much-needed platform to bridge the communication gap between the community and the BPP.

Parsi Times took the initiative and got in touch with the BPP Chairman, Yazdi Desai, who more than gladly consented to take up the offer of reaching out directly to the community that put its faith in him and the current Board to do right by our community. We are happy to announce that, starting next month, 2nd July, 2016, Parsi Times will officially run an exclusive, monthly column, which will appear on the first Saturday of every month, wherein the BPP will directly share with our readers a summation of the past month’s activities, achievements, failures, changes in policies, et al; as well as provide a sneak-peak into the next month’s plan of action; accompanied by a direct address to our community by BPP Chairman, Yazdi Desai, himself.

We are pleased to share the reply received from Yazdi Desai, as his first official address via our column, ‘The BPP Connect’. Says Yazdi Desai, “I appreciate the initiative and onus taken by Parsi Times to bridge the communication gap between our community and the BPP. I would like to assure our community that they have elected a truly dynamic Board this time around. Each one of us has different strengths and our own individual working methods, and in so much, as a team we bring our best to the table and complement each other. The net result is a lot of positive energy within the Board room, channeled unanimously towards the betterment and prosperity of our community, to right the wrongs, to better the good, and to ensure that every individual in our community is looked after.

The upto now lack of a direct channel of communication allowed the occasional doubt or questioned the activities of the BPP, sometimes leading to misrepresentation of facts and the unnecessary spreading of baseless rumors. As in every community, we have our own share of skeptics, and I would like to take this opportunity to invite them to work alongside the BPP in finding solutions to the real problems in our community, and channelize their energy in doing good for the community too. As Chairman of the BPP, I assure everyone that our vibrant Board of Trustees fully intends to ensure that by the end of our tenure in 2022, the BPP will once again be regarded as the august and effective institute it was meant to be.

As a brief first report, it’s my pleasure and privilege to inform the community that our Board has earnestly addressed the problems of Housing, as can be seen, with the recent number of housing applications that have been processed in the past six months, after the stay order was finally lifted. As promised, the new Board has already cleared the issues of Audit of the pending past accounts. The Trustees have focused their efforts on raising Finance through newer, innovative ideas as compared to the past. We have also applied our minds to more vexatious issues which we will share in greater statistical detail, in the first official column starting next month, from Saturday, 2nd July, 2016.

This platform, ‘BPP Connect’, extended by Parsi Times to facilitate communicating with the community on a regular basis, will go a long way in restoring the faith of the community in the Trustees and the Trust. Through this column, I will endeavor to answer any questions or criticisms that we may have received, either through PT or directly. I want to assure our community that you are in good hands. You have done a great job in electing a motivated Board of Trustees that is focused on delivering its promise to the community. One of the strongest points of our Board is that we work cohesively as team-players. As Chairman, I encourage my colleagues to take up new roles and responsibilities, to think and act independently of each other as well as jointly as a team, thereby enabling individual strengths to come together and merge into an empowered collective whole, so we can serve our community to the very best of our capacity, as a responsible and zealous Board.”