Recreational facility for Indians goes for family-oriented makeover

Abu Dhabi: The Indian Social and Cultural Centre (ISC) in the capital, one of the largest community organisations in the UAE, is keen to attract more families to various events and activities held on its premises, according to its newly-elected president.

"We would like to make the centre an affordable and comfortable place for families to spend the evenings," M. Thomas Varghese told Gulf News Saturday.

At the moment, families do participate in the occasional functions but daily visitors are mostly youngsters taking part in sports and literary activities, he observed.

The ISC takes pride in its Dh35-million building, considered as the biggest Indian recreational club in the Middle East with 2,079 members.

About 12 new office-bearers of the centre were declared elected after a poll held late on Thursday in the presence of officials from the ministry of social affairs, Basil Consera, the chief polling officer, said. Varghese won the highest number of votes (545) out of a total 703 polled, he said.

Low turnout

Although 1,069 members registered for the voting, some of them had to leave early due to the delayed annual general body meeting and the election process, Consera said. "The quorum mandates the attendance of 51 per cent of the members, who come to over a thousand. And about 700 to 750 people vote every year, that is the trend [every year]", he explained about the low turnout in elections.

The other office-bearers are: Dr. Rajah Balakrishna (vice-president), Ramesh V. Panicker (general secretary), Eapen Varghese (assistant general secretary), E.Surendranath (treasurer), M. Sankaranarayanan (assistant treasurer), Sam Elias (entertainment secretary), M.N. Asok Kumar (assistant entertainment secretary), Devkumar. V. Nair (literary secretary), P. Sathyababu (sports secretary), Asif Abdul Salam.S (assistant sports secretary), and P.S Jacob (auditor).

"Achieving financial independence of the centre [clearing the liabilities of the building construction] and ensuring the participation of all communities of Indians in the activities, especially the people who are not in the mainstream of the society, will also be our priorities," Varghese said.

"We will try to invite at least some sections of labour class to attend functions on special occasions", he said.

"We will also conduct medical camps and other social support programmes with the help of sponsors', he added.

Recalling that when the construction of the new building was started in 2005, it had been promised that the centre would be for the entire community, he said: "We will try to keep that promise."