No land for agiary

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has turned down a request made by the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) for a plot of land near the Sabarmati riverfront on which to construct an agiary, reported the Ahmedabad edition of Daily News and Analysis (DNA) dated October 17, 2016.

Seth Navroji and Jehangirji Pestonji Vakil Daremeher in Ahmedabad

Since the 132-year-old Seth Navroji and Jehangirji Pestonji Vakil Daremeher located in Bukhara Mohalla at Khamasa Crossroads inside the walled city is inconvenient for people to visit regularly, on October 28, 2015 the APP had requested the AMC for land on the riverfront for an agiary as most Parsis now reside in the western part of the city. When DNA asked J. S. Prajapati, deputy municipal commissioner about this matter, the publication was informed that the riverfront area is meant for commercial use.
Brig Jahangir Anklesaria (retd), APP president, spoke to DNA: "No one goes to a place of worship individually. People like to go with family. But due to the location and increase in vehicular traffic owing to (the) Sunday market, the number of Parsis visiting the Agiary has fallen drastically.” Earlier, community gatherings there would attract around 200-300 Parsis while now hardly 15 come, he shared with the newspaper. That is why APP approached the AMC for the land.
Looking at the matter optimistically, Anklesaria said he was willing to try anew. "With the change in leadership (a new chief minister), we will approach the state government again.” And if the APP succeeds in obtaining a plot for a new fire temple, they will also construct a building there for Parsis so that the community can live together, he told DNA.