BREAKING  NEWS!!!

MUNCHI CAMA MOVES CC OFFICE FOR A STAY ORDER

Even as PT publishes in this issue about BPP Chairman Yazdi Desai’s letter expressing angst about Trustees Viraf Mehta’s and Armaity Tirandaz’s refusal to sign the agreements of our hopeful community members, who have been allotted housing in the last few weeks, it appears that Muncherji Cama has added his weight behind their efforts.

At around 4:00 pm on 26th August, 2016, Cama’s lawyers served the BPP Trustees a notice u/s 41-E r/w 41-A. Simply put, Cama has moved an application before the Charity Commissioner (CC) praying that the work of the BPP be stayed by an order of the CC. The prayer includes policy decisions, administrative work and the all-important stay on allotment of houses.

It’s interesting to note the chronology of events as well as the players involved in this latest drama. On June 2015, Cama resigned. He made very serious allegations against all the then BPP Trustees, and called upon the CC to suo-moto appoint an administrator.

Dinshaw Mehta challenged both, the validity of the resignation and the procedure adopted in accepting the same. From records available with PT, Cama did not file his reply for almost six months, leading members of the community to assume that Cama had left the decision of whether he continued as a Trustee or not, in the hands of the authorities. In fact, Cama had said exactly this, quite often, to people who asked his views about his resignation and the subsequent challenge. One believed that Cama, a man who held his own word in high regard, would not try and back out from his resignation, which was a well thought out and well recorded letter.

However, recent events show that things might not be as straight forward as they seem. On the 25th of July, Trustees Viraf and Armaity sent out a letter to prevent the registration of all Leave and Licence and Tenancy Agreements. The same day, Cama’s lawyer also issued a notice, and two days later, the lawyer for Armaity and Viraf did ditto – par for course!

The notice served by Cama (Applicant No 1) on Friday is co-signed by Kersi Sethna, the long-time friend of Dinshaw Mehta (the proxy candidate, who lost his deposit in the last elections) who stays in Cama Park, in a flat registered in the name of Pansy Dinshaw Mehta.

Facts, dates and the people involved point towards a negative concerted effort by a few individuals to prevent the Trustees from serving the community. This leaves us with a few unanswered questions: Is this a diversion from the hottest issue doing the rounds of the community? Who are the people involved and are they connected by an invisible chord?

One can only lament and feel sorry for the poor of our community, who may once again be forced to wait for God knows how long for their dream homes! Ultimately in the fight between Charity and Politics, Politics wins hands down, every time. Even as the actors in the fight gloat and feel happy in their tiny successes, they do not see the tears in the eyes of the members of the community who come close to being housed, only to be pushed away by the animal called politics.