Central Club finally sealed, members, workers protest

Barely twelve hours after stating that the Central Club in Sector 9 would not be evicted till Monday, UT Estate Office officials sealed the club premises on Saturday morning much to the shock of the members, who had arrived at 10 am for a general body meeting.

The sudden eviction prompted a protest by the members, mostly senior citizens, in front of the club's gates, where there was heavy police presence since the sealing in the morning.

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."

... contd.

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