The IAS Officers’ Club behind Chief Minister’s camp office in Somajiguda is completely razed. Two months after the Advocate General of Telangana gave a commitment to a Division Bench of the Hyderabad High Court headed by Chief Justice D.B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt that the status quo of the building would be maintained, the building is history now. Incidentally, no formal order was passed in this regard, but now the court has been presented with a fait accompli .
“Not even a shell, the building has completely disappeared and bulldozers are working round the clock. The access has been cut down and anyone wandering around the area is being quizzed,” said P. Srinivas, a concerned citizen who volunteers for Forum for Better Hyderabad.
The IAS Officers’ Club was a colonial-era bungalow with a huge rolling walk leading to a portico and a verandah. The semi-circular bay windows on the side showed that the building was built sometime in the early part of the 20{+t}{+h}century. “One prominent feature of this building was the large number of balconies and verandahs, both open and semi-open. A part of the building had madras terrace roof while the rest of it had a jack arch roof,” says a report done by architecture students who did a study of the building in 2005.
Now, hidden by 25-feet high perimeter wall, work is apace on another structure and huge boulders have been piled up. “Even the trees around the building have withered away and they might have been poisoned,” says Mr. Srinivas.
A visit to the site, from a building overlooking the spot is a shock. Instead of the quaintly royal building suggestive of a leisurely time, all one can see is rocks and boulders. Instead of the ancient trees and neatly manicured lawns where many events ranging from book launches (one of the last book launches was that of Narendra Legendotes of Hyderabad) to birthday parties and engagements were celebrated, all that one can see is brown landscape with dust in the air.
Incidentally, the swimming pool behind the IAS Officers’ Club had disappeared some time ago. The rear entrance of the club from where IAS and IPS officers and their families would walk, jog and run in the open space has also been walled up on the Panjagutta side. “It remains to be seen how the High Court reacts to the newest development,” said an office-bearer of Forum for Better Hyderabad, which had filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the demolition of the building.
Incidentally, IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday, in the aftermath of the victory in GHMC elections said, the government will now see Forum for Better Hyderabad and other NGOs working for the city as stakeholders and would take their opinion in all progressive steps in the city.
