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SPORTS: GOLF
Teeing
Troubles
A tiff
over membership has the Government cancelling DGC's lease
By
Sayantan Chakravarty
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| SWINGING FORTUNES: The new policy will ring
in the old, turf out the young |
It is a sight that
inspires. Two athletic teenagers, sweatbeads streaking down their faces,
fluently swinging away in the lush driving ranges of the Delhi Golf Club
(DGC), unmindful of the early May sun beating down in all its fury. Sharad
Gupta, 17, and barely out of school (Air Force Bal Bharati), and the well
over 6-ft tall Karan Talwar, 15, still in school (Modern, Vasant Vihar),
are two toiling, determined golfing greenhorns who have decided to "club
out" all summer, hoping that not far into the future fame and fortune
will swing their way.
There's no doubt that for a club which has given
to the country its top golfers (Ali Sher, Rohtas Singh, Ashok Kumar to
name a few), the likes of Gupta and Talwar are the future. But on course
to that future lies one heavyweight obstacle-the obdurate Indian bureaucracy.
At the 179-acre hornbill-habitat course, the babus in the Union Government
have decided, unilaterally, that they need to increase their membership
in the club. This even when nearly half the club's 3,200 members are retired
or serving government officials. With the club not quite ready to play
along, the Government has gone ahead and cancelled its land lease. Right
now, the only thing allowing the golfers to keep playing-and, of course,
visit the old world bar-is the intervention of the Delhi High Court, which
the club had petitioned for relief.
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"More
officials may not be good for the game."
S.K. Sharma, DGC Secretary
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Why is the DGC membership so coveted? The reasons
are many. For one, the club is centrally located in Delhi. It is also
one of the finest golf courses in Asia and has a bar that offers a view
of a lovely forest and some Lodhi-era heritage monuments. Most importantly
membership grants entry to a network of people who matter. The DGC has
also emerged as the chief nursery of golfing talent (nine Arjuna awardees
honed their skills at the club) since the days of the New Delhi Asian
Games in 1982, and subsequently the times when the Indian Open, Hero Honda
Masters, and SAARC Cup were held.
Trouble started with a letter No. L-II-17(7)/97(720)
on December 21, 2000, from the Land and Development Office of the Ministry
of Urban Development (lessor of the land) that took the club management
by surprise. It stated, among other things, that in future "at the
time of enlisting new members, every third, instead of every fifth member,
ought to be a government servant, provided he meets the handicap rules
of the club". The club was also required to absorb 50 tenure members
instead of the existing 25; tenure members are senior government officials
who are entitled to the club's membership during postings in Delhi. Similarly
the number of non-tenure members had to be doubled to 50. In addition,
the Government said that all judges of the Supreme Court, the Delhi High
Court, the service chiefs, the attorney-general and solicitor-generals
and Union secretaries should be absorbed as members. Their estimated number
is in the region of 250-300.
With the Government acting as a tough custodian
of its land, matters came to a head. On February 23 2001, the club received
a letter from the ministry saying that inspection of its premises on November
22, 2000 had revealed several violations by way of additions and alterations
to existing structures. With the club not reacting, the lease of the premises
was cancelled in March, even though it was valid until December 2010.
It wasn't just the order abruptly truncating the lease period that came
as a sharp blow, the Government also enhanced the annual ground rent and
the licence fees with retrospective effect-burdening the club with a bill
of nearly Rs 1 crore. For a non-profit body that charges its members Rs
200 per month, this is fat money indeed.
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