Source: Business Standard
On June 10, 2006 the Business Standard reported, "Open land in Mumbai's Parsi fire temples are the latest targets for re-development. How is the community reacting? It may be all quiet at Kappawalla Agiary, in Mumbai’s Tardeo, but all’s certainly not well. The Parsi fire temple (agiary) is currently the object of contention in a tug-of-war between its trustees and the community. A tender for redevelopment of the agiary annexe into a residential project has been awarded to a tenant living in the annexe. And the larger community — Mumbai is home to 45,000 Parsis — that has witnessed such encroachments on open spaces surrounding their fire temples in the past, is alarmed. Most recently Hilla Towers, a 24-storey residential building, was authorised to be constructed cheek-by-jowl with the 170-year-old Labaug agiary complex by the trustees of the temple. 'It’s a nexus of callous trustees and rich builders that started back in the ’60s, when land in the Walkeshwar temple complex was granted for a residential project,' says Khojeste Mistri, managing trustee, World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ). The justification offered by trustees of these agiaries is that their percentage of builder profits comes in handy for the maintenance of the ageing temples. 'You don’t need a few crore rupees for a coat of paint every year,' he retorts."