Luton
Namaste
How was the Luton Branch established ? Well having lived in Luton for the past 20 years and always having a Samaj , I just took it as the norm .
All I knew was Luton Branch had re-formed in 1998 but I didn ’ t know what had happened before that and all I could say is that we received a letter to attend a meeting in 1998 . Having asked questions I ’ ve learned :
In February 1975 a meeting of Prajapatis took place at a residence in Luton , where representatives from Coventry branch attended . SPA ( UK ) Luton was established during that meeting with Shree Dalubhai Pragjibhai Mistry as the first President and Shree Kantilal Dahyabhai Lad as the first Secretary . At that time there were about 24 known Prajapati families in Luton .
In the same year SPA ( UK ) was set up , and Luton joined as one of the branches . We attended SPA ( UK ) Pratinidhi meetings , organised activities in Luton such as coach trips , celebrated Navratri in a hired church hall , started a cricket team , purchased cricket equipment , played a few matches with local cricket teams , started playing badminton , and took part in SPA ( UK ) Sports tournaments etc .
This lasted for about 3 years until 1978 . Gradually no Office Bearers or the Committee members had any spare time for the Samaj and Kantilal ended up doing the work of President , Secretary and Treasurer . He ended up attending all the Pratinidhi meetings all over the country taking his own car . Eventually he got exasperated as there was no interest from the Committee or the members to run the Samaj and finally in 1978 SPA Luton branch folded . All the property of the Samaj including money was handed over to SPA ( UK ) and the money was kept in a separate account .
Despite several attempts by SPA ( UK ) to revive Luton branch including proposals to make Luton Branch part of the London Branch , Luton Branch became dormant for 20 years . In 1998 , SPA ( UK ) was to make a decision to dissolve the dormant Luton Branch and take its money into SPA ( UK ). At that point , the then Secretary of SPA ( UK ) Late Chhaganbhai Mistry requested Kantilal to take some action to save Luton ’ s name being wiped out from SPA ( UK ).
Kantilal teamed up with Shree Thakorbhai J Mistry , Shree Navinbhai C Mistry and Shree Pravinbhai H Mistry and together they decided to take some action to revive Luton branch . They asked for support from SPA ( UK ) to help revive Luton Branch by attending a SPA ( UK ) Pratinidhi
74 vol . 41 | Prajapati Sandesh 2016