Pehramni for priests

As a goodwill gesture cum donation, philanthropist Dr Cyrus S. Poonawalla is presenting Rs 10,000 annually as a Parsi New Year gift to every priest in India, whether practising or non-practising, read an advertisement issued by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) that appeared in some sections of the Parsi Press. This will continue "till further notice of discontinuation at his discretion at any time,” the notice stated.

The gift was "sponta­neously decided” during the muktad days, mentioned Sarosh Bokdawalla of the Serum Institute of India, when Parsiana contacted him over the telephone. He revealed that all the priests in Poonawalla’s home city, Poona, have already received their cheques as have the 215 listed in Phase I of the BPP’s mobed amelioration scheme which was forwarded to the industrialist. In all about 250-260 priests have been recipients of Poonawalla’s generosity so far.
However, since details of Phase II as well as non-practising mobeds were not available with the BPP, the advertisement requests eligible persons to obtain an endorsement through their anjumans, punchayets, panthakis of agiaries and atash behrams and send their applications to Bokdawalla at Serum Institute of India Limited, Sarosh Bhavan, 16/B-1 Dr Ambedkar Road, Poona 411001. Full details should be revealed in the application such as name, address, contact number, PAN card number, name of bank and branch with account number, IFS code number and email ID, if any. Applications should reach Bokdawalla at the earliest for speedy implementation.