Central Club finally sealed,members,workers protest

The club’s members stated that authorities had assured them on Friday night that no action would be taken for two days. The protesters were soon joined by over a dozen of Central Club’s workers,including sweepers,waiters,helpers,among others.

The workers claimed that they now had no where to go and no other means to earn a livelihood. “I have three daughters and my husband does not work. My family gets two square meals a day only after I work. Now where will I go,if the club has been evicted,” said a sobbing Kamla,who had worked as a cleaner at the club for the past two decades. Echoing similar sentiments,Parkash,another worker at the club said: “We were not even given time to collect our belongings. My money,clothes,important documents,everything has been sealed,what will I do?”he asked.

“This action is not justified as officials last night (Friday) gave us their word that that no action will be taken. It was only because of the issue that we had called an emergency general body meeting on Saturday. But before we could even hold our meeting,to our shock and horror,the premises was sealed,”said S K Kakkar,one of the club’s oldest members.

Later,after deliberating on the issue for over two hours,the members met UT Advisor K K Sharma,at his residence and sought his intervention in the matter. Vinod Talwar,president of the club said: “ The advisor gave us a patient hearing and after listening to us,he assured us that he will look into the matter on Monday and will call us accordingly.” Reva Gandhi,a social activist and a member,said: “ The club has over 400 women members who are all senior citizens and most of them have their children living abroad. For them the club is their lifeline. This is the only source of recreation and social get together for most of the members.”

When contacted,UT joint secretary (estates) S K Setia,who supervised the sealing on Saturday said that there was no commitment at all about not sealing the premises. “We had clearly told the members that we will go ahead with the court orders unless they deposit the pending amount.”. On Friday evening,a team from the UT Estate Office along with other officials including the Assistant Estate Officer (AEO) Rahul Gupta,ADC Mahavir Kaushik and S K Setia Joint secretary (Estates) had gone to take the possession of one of Central Club,one of the city’s oldest but returned empty handed.

The team had gone to the club following recent orders passed by an Additional Sessions Court upholding the earlier eviction orders passed by the UT Estate Office in 2011.