The Shiv Sena-headed BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulldozed illegal constructions in Goregaon Sports Club (GSC), believed to be a BJP-controlled club, which also has prominent Congress ministers and businessmen as members. The incident took place over the past week.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government's Minister for Ports & Textiles and Mumbai City Guardian Minister, Aslam Shaikh, is among the members of the GSC, located in suburban Malad.
A BMC team from P/North on January 3 demolished a series of temporary and semi-permanent structures across 50,000 square feet, where a food court was set to come up. The BMC action came after several notices over legalities flouted under the MMC Act/MRTP Act.
GSC sources said that the management pointed fingers at unidentified "mischief mongers" out to sully the club's reputation for their own vested interests.
The GSC management hastily issued a private four-page explanation, in which it committed to bear the losses arising from the demolition, around Rs 12.50 crore, and assured that "there will be no extra burden on the Club".
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However, many sceptical members have taken the management's promise with a bag of salt, dismissively saying there is "a huge gap between words and deeds", considering past experiences. In mid-2021, the GSC's 11,000-plus members were shocked when a leading international external auditor made a damning expose of a massive financial fraud of around Rs 25 crore.
Worried GSC members moved a local court to bar the report from being made public while the harried management bowed, vowing to probe the purported mega-hustle, but nine months on, there has been no development. "Considering the murky mismanagement, financial frauds, illegalities and other things, many members feel the GSC should be taken over by a government-appointed administrator for a few years to restore its past glory," member Vijay Agarwal told IANS.
Spread over a lush 10 acres, the GSC was conceptualised in 1980 and came into existence in 2002, with oodles of support from persons including Shiv Sena minister Subhash Desai, and Congress minister Shaikh, said leading realtor and one of the founder-members, Ashok Goyal.
"It is the only private club in Mumbai and surroundings with an Olympic-size swimming pool, an Olympic-specification diving pool and several world-class sports activities, indoor-outdoor games and other amenities for the suburbanites who were deprived of such things for long," Goyal told IANS.
The GSC's membership fee is around Rs15-20 lakh per head, with a long queue of hopefuls.
Another member, requesting anonymity, said it is a "mystery" how the management dared to blatantly function like this with so many bigwigs watching over them, and why the latter took no steps to arrest the GSC downfall. Despite repeated attempts, Shaikh was not available for comment on the issue.
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