In 1851, five great stalwarts of our community were declared as the first ever Trustees of the Panchayat. The Trustees themselves used to elect when there was a vacancy of the Trustees amongst themselves, and the Trustee was a life time Trustee. Back then, the Parsi Panchayat received implicit obedience from its co-religionists, and the authorities of Bombay, and there was no appeal against its decisions, so much so that at times those who were found guilty were publicly beaten up in the open streets by shoes, without any protest from any member of the community.
Thankfully we have evolved from Trusteeship in perpetuity to a seven year term with a maximum of three terms. However, we must not stagnate in our quest for progress. In 2007 the Scheme for Election of Trustees of the Funds
& Immovable Properties of the Parsee Panchayat of Bombay came into effect. The scheme made some radical changes to the election process. The biggest change in the Scheme was brought about by the Late Rustom Tirandaz and my father Dinshaw Mehta who were instrumental in introducing to our community Universal Adult Franchise which gave every Parsi over the age of 18 the right to vote. As per the Scheme, authority to amend the Scheme was granted to the Board of Trustees who would have to make its proposals to the Bombay High Court.
It is my opinion that there are certain pressing amendments that need to be included in the Scheme by the new Board of Trustees.
A 5 Year Term
I strongly believe that a single term of a Trustee should by all means be limited to 5 years. All government posts today, in India and internationally, have capped a term to a maximum of 5 years. A study has shown that a term of 5 years gives the elected member enough time to get acquainted with the post and thereafter sufficient time to perform to his/her ultimate capability. Any period over 5 years leads to complacency and underperformance.
With a limit of each term to 5 years and a maximum of three terms, the effect automatically permits an individual to serve the community for a maximum of 15 years in total.
All Come Together – Go Together
Unfortunately, the Scheme when drafted, did not foresee a situation like the untimely death of then Trustee late Mr. Rustom Tirandaz that shock the community, merely months after the 2008 election. After a few months we were once again forced to fight another election, which are always bitter in nature.
The Scheme also did not provide for a sensible solution for when people quit mid-way through their term for whatever reasons.
This meant that whenever a vacancy occurs, the BPP has 3 months from the vacancy to hold an election and announce the new Trustee. Mind you the cost of each election ranges from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 15 lakhs and this cost is increasing every election. This means spending lakhs of community funds to fill a vacancy whenever there was an untimely death or when one chose to abandon the post they were elected to serve on.
I intend to introduce a proposal to amend the Scheme to ensure that all Trustees come together and go together eliminating mid-term elections which have potentially caused the most harm to our community.
Election Commission
The Scheme needs a structure whereby at the eve of elections, the functioning of the Trustees is limited to sundry and no major decision be taken by the Trustees to a contesting candidates benefit.
Even though the above is expected, unfortunately on 8 September 2015, after the current election process had begun certain sitting Trustees sanctioned an unusual and arbitrary interim increase in the salaries of the around 120 BPP Parsi staff by a whopping 25%, leading to an increase in their salaries on an average of Rs. 6000/ to Rs. 7000/ per month. Whilst the salary hike maybe well-deserved, it is highly irregular for such a hike at the eve of elections. More importantly, several months ago the same Trustees were the ones who had opposed a meagre pay-hike to our khandiyas due to paucity of funds.
The above is election-politics at its best and I wish to change that and believe it is mandatory that we introduce a system by way of an Election Commission by which the role of Trustees at the eve of elections, re-contesting or not is curbed and the same be given to an independent body who shall conduct the election. It shall be left to the Election Commission to introduce and enforce a Code of Conduct, which today is left to the discretion of the current Trustees.
Identity Card
The current voting certificates get damaged and misplaced regularly and the unfortunate BPP office gets in-fluxed with requests for duplicate certificates before elections. I recommend that to counter this issue the BPP should introduce community ID cards which can be used not only as identity cards for our community members but also a card which will contain all valuable data such as photo, residential address and blood group which will assist our seniors. The data of these cards can be posted on the BPP website so that such data is available to all, in the case of emercencies.
The above are my key proposals and should I be elected they will be my very first mission to accomplish.
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