Officers Club wants its building back

After eight years, members of the Vijayawada Officers Club have started attempts to take back the club building, which is now used as the camp office of the Director General of Police (DGP) in Vijayawada. The Officers Club wants to resume their activities in the capital city.
As of now, the 700 officers who are serving the State have no building to conduct meetings in the city. So, the Vijayawada Officers Club members are requesting the Police Department to return the building. There is no alternative facility to provide accommodation to the officers who come to the city from other districts for various purposes. In this situation, the Officers Club members met NTR District Collector Dr S Dilli Rao and submitted a representation urging him to reallocate the building to their club.
After the State bifurcation, on January 5, 2015, the State government allotted the Officers Club building to the Police Department temporarily for setting up the DGP’s camp office. The Vijayawada Irrigation Circle Superintending Engineer’s residential building was also allotted to the Police Department.
After taking over the buildings, the Police Department renovated them and used them as DGP camp office and residence. Later, they constructed permanent buildings for the DGP office and other sub-units at Mangalagiri. However, the department did not hand over the old building to the Irrigation Department.
The Irrigation Department’s 4,052-square yard building and the adjacent Officers Club building of 7,062 square yards are situated at a prime location of the Vijayawada city, near the Raj Bhavan and the City Civil Courts. As per the terms and conditions, after constructing the permanent buildings the police should have returned these buildings.
Will write to DGP and State Govt: Collector
After receiving a request from the Officers Club members, Collector Dr S Dilli Rao assured that he would write to the State government and DGP KV Rajendranath Reddy to return the Officers Club site, building and SE residence bungalow.
K Sivasankar, Officers Club member, said that the Police Department had constructed a new building for the DGP office at Mangalagiri. So, the Officers Club building should be returned. The club organised tennis, volleyball, ball badminton, billiards and other sports items for officers, he said.
Further, he stated that the club used to provide training for children in various skills, gymnastics, family counselling and even organise free medical camps, he pointed out.