The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, 2022 is an election of corporators to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation which governs Greater Mumbai, the largest city in India. These take place every five years and this year electoral boundaries have been delimited by the State Election Commission and BMC. During this exercise they changed the Ward Number and structure of the Heritage Precinct of Dadar Parsi Colony (officially “Mancherji Edulji Joshi Colony”) as Ward No. 184 (previously No. 178) but to our utter shock they have also excluded our Mancherji Joshi Five Gardens & Kavi Ardeshir F. Khabardar chowk gardens from the now newly numbered Ward No. 184.

Since the last BMC election held in 2017, letters & emails have been sent to the Electoral Commission (EC), the BMC Commissioner and BMC Assistant Municipal Commissioner of F/North Ward by the local residents’ association, a representation was also made at the BMC headquarters in June 2017.

Mancherji E. Joshi, is the principal founder of the Dadar Parsi Colony and was a venerated civil servant and Municipal Corporator of the BMC for 17 consecutive years (previously known as the Bombay Improvement Trust). During his time as a civil servant he had laid out the plans for the construction of the Dadar Parsi Colony by first marking out the open spaces/parks & gardens way before he marked out the roads and plots in this 100-year-old precinct which is the largest enclave for our Parsi community in the world.

The above-mentioned gardens are officially named after him as ‘Mancherji Joshi Five Gardens’, the Parsi Colony also has at its south end the ‘Mancherji Joshi Chowk’ where our founder's statue stands proudly watching over the colony.

Hence to us residents, it seems almost like sacrilege and mindless on the part of the government to divide or dissect what was designed to be part of the Dadar Parsi Colony, by our beloved founder, and gross negligence towards the sentiments & wishes of this micro minority community.

We want all the said gardens to be reinstated in Ward No. 184 as it has been since the past 100 years or so for the following reasons:

Dadar Parsi Colony being a Heritage precinct having one corporator will not only ensure better facilitation of the precinct but also ensure greater accountability in protecting it. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 delegated many powers to the Corporator.  Thus, having one corporator to deal with in one heritage precinct will be better for our resident’s association.
 

Being a colony founded by Mancherji E. Joshi it is but natural that the gardens named after him should be in the same ward as the chowk named after him so they may both be protected and to honour his legacy and great contribution to the city.
 

Inclusion of the gardens in Ward No. 184 instead of No. 183 will not necessitate any change in the electoral rolls as the inclusion will only entail shifting of the boundary from one side of the road to the other, it would not change the electoral ward of any residents.
 

Ward No. 184 is currently administered by Ward Division F/North. In 2017, the MCGM had proposed to move the ward division to F/South. It was only due to the efforts of the residents association and the corporator that such a decision was averted. If such a plan is ever resurrected, this would ensure that Mancherji Joshi Colony and Mancherji Joshi Gardens would be permanently separated. The residents of the colony would need to liaison with officers in two Wards so as to facilitate any preservation of the Heritage Precinct. The residents do not want such a thing happening under any circumstance.
 

Anyone who has visited the Dadar Parsi Colony precinct is always in awe with its greenery and as to how well maintained the area is. This is not due to sheer happenstance but due to the painstaking efforts of Mancherji Joshi, the BMC, the residents association of Dadar Parsi Colony (MEJCRA) and its corporators. It is only this collective effort that has helped preserve our beloved greenery.
 

We therefore wish for all (especially residents of Dadar Parsi Colony) to sign our Petition to help preserve our heritage.