Deciding on the deserving

The tricky and acrimonious issue of deciding housing allotments came to the fore with the leaked email of Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee Yazdi Desai addressed to his co-trustees alleging favoritism in the allotment of a flat in Jer Baug.
“Let us not beat about the bush,” emailed Desai to his co-trustees on July 15, 2012. “The issue is simple — information was withheld from the board.” The dispute centered around an application by Zarir Aderbad Bhesania on December 28, 2007. Bhesania was allotted a flat in Goregaon though he had requested a flat in south Bombay. As his wife Parinaz suffered from “a back problem, for which she was operated in 2006, it would not be advisable for her to travel long distances. She has been working in Worli for the last three years,” wrote Desai.
“Yet they were not allotted a house closer to south Bombay and instead three others who had no special circumstances to warrant an allotment in the heart of the city were given preference,” claimed Desai. Amongst the three was Neveille Mehta, son of the BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta’s cousin Pervez who is the joint honorary secretary of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI).
“The preferential treatment evidently accorded to Neveille could be exposed, thus putting the trustees in a bad light. A charge of nepotism could also be levied on the chairman. And by extension, the board would be guilty of violating the principles of good governance. This is a concern,” stated Desai.
In the fallout between Dinshaw and the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) trustees on the BPP board, namely Khojeste Mistree and Desai, Pervez sided with Dinshaw.
In a letter dated October 16, 2012 addressed to the editor of Parsi Times (PT) who in the issue of October 13 had focussed on the controversy, Pervez noted, “No preferential treatment was meted out to my son, Neveille. I wish to state emphatically that my son was allotted a flat by the BPP as far as back as December 2011 strictly as per their norms/rules and policy giving priority to just marrying couples…
“Desai himself has stated in the said email that as per the merit rating list of the BPP, Neveille was ranked 102 and Bhesania 108. This clearly shows that Neveille had the first priority for being allotted a flat and the allotment was done after completion of all the formalities, meetings/interviews, discussions and voting at the board’s meetings… (Desai’s email avers that in the merit rating “preferential treatment seems to have been given” to Neveille.)
“It is clear from the various statements that the allotment approval of Neveille was done unanimously by the full board of trustees and not by Dinshaw alone.