Covid lockdown: Chandigarh Club members see red over subscription fee bill for April
A member has also issued a legal notice to the club, seeking a waiver as no services were used during the ongoing lockdown period; club wants members to shoulder cost burden
With all clubs in the city remaining closed ever since the lockdown began on March 24, some members of Chandigarh Club, Sector 1, have objected to getting a bill for subscription fee for April.
A fee of around ₹1,400, including GST, is collected bimonthly from all 7,000-odd members of the club.
A member, Divanshu Jain, said, “Since we didn’t use any services, it doesn’t make sense to charge us membership fee. Other clubs have extended memberships and subscriptions by up to four months to account for the lockdown months. Why shouldn’t Chandigarh Club do the same?”
Jain, an advocate at the Punjab and Haryana high court, added that he had sent a legal notice to the club management asking to waive the fee.
Another member, Puneet Jain, who runs a hotel in Sector 35, said all clubs should waive membership fee during this period. “Even after the lockdown is opened, only home delivery will be started at first, which the club doesn’t do, so the management needs to reduce the fee till then.”
Another member, Ajai Singh Takhar, a businessman, said the costs of electricity and water to run the club were not being incurred, so the club could manage their finances. “Even after paying a joining fee of ₹3.85 lakh, rather than enjoying the club experience, we feel like they are just after our money. We have written to the management about our complaints, but they don’t reply,” he said.
‘NEED TO PAY SALARIES’
Saying that membership fee had never been waived ever since the club was started in 1958, executive member Hitesh Puri said, “The fee is needed to pay the salaries of around 300 employees of the club and for other monthly expenses. All members are treated as shareholders of the club and have to step in for its functioning. About a third of the 7,000 members have already paid the fee online.”
Club president Sandeep Sahni said, “Before we received the legal notice, nobody had complained about the fees. In so many years of functioning, nobody has had problems with subscription fee as it is needed to run the club. We will soon send a reply to the notice.”