Nizam Club faces funds misuse row

Hyderabad: A host of issues have been raised by some members of the prestigious 130-year old Nizam Club alleging financial irregularities and procedural lapses by the managing committee of the club. The allegations of irregularities span from charging higher membership fees than the prescribed limit as per the club’s rules for Long Term Temporary members, poor quality of multi-level parking lot building and not following norms in giving contract for construction of sports complex in the club.

Ramesh Kumar Dhir, a lifetime member of the club said, “On November 30, 2015 in the extraordinary general body meeting, many members of the club questioned the president of the managing committee, E. Rajender Kumar on various irregularities. For the first time in more than a century old history of Nizam Club an EGM had to be stopped midway because there were aggressive protests by members. I wrote letters asking the president various questions regarding the irregularities but no reply was given.”

One of the irregularities raised was charging of extra fees of Rs 3 lakh for private sector employees and around Rs 1 lakh for government employees than the prescribed amount of Rs 25,000 from around 270 Long Term Temporary members.

Another allegation being made is that the multi-level parking lot building for which the sanctioned cost was Rs 8 crore, which later got escalated to Rs 11 crore, is of poor quality with slagging slabs, tiles getting chipped at some places, water leaking in the basement.

A main issue has been that the building’s basement is still incomplete years after starting of construction. It is being alleged that contract worth around Rs 6 crore for construction of sports complex was given to the company which constructed the parking lot without releasing tenders and that it was also paid Rs 1 crore through cheque on October 3, a day before election was to be held for some positions of the managing committee.

When contacted, the newly elected secretary of the managing committee, Naresh Solanki said, “Yes, some issues were raised at the EGM by members. The managing committee will have a discussion and try to come out with a white paper on them.” When the president E. Rajender Kumar was asked about the allegations he rejected them as false.