Issue Nº403 – News in brief

The sixth edition of the Auroville International Potters’ Market was held from January 26th-28th at the Visitors Center. This year, about 40 national and international ceramic artists participated, including a number of Aurovilian potters.

The North East monsoon, which normally brings our heaviest rainfall, fell short this year. According to Charlie’s (Aurogreen) figures, the rainfall in December was almost 40% less than the 33 year average, in November 23% less and in October 4% less. Overall, the NE monsoon rainfall was over 21% less than average. The total rainfall for the year was 123 centimetres, about 12.2% less than average.

The 2023 selection process concluded on 29th January. Two new members were selected for the Auroville Council and four for the Entry Board. Several candidates for FAMC selection dropped out at the last minute, and no new members were selected. The RA TDC and RA WC were not part of the selection process and will continue with their current teams.

The Multi-disciplinary forum has begun meeting again. This forum, which evolved out of the Dreamweaving experiment, brings together Auroville experts from different fields to examine topics of collective importance. It aims to create a culture of collaboration across different disciplines, and provide suggestions, recommendations and/or guidelines on specific planning projects or programmes to be included in a larger Auroville planning vision document. The first topic it explored was mobility.

The FO Working Committee, ATDC and FAMC invited residents to an open meeting on 24th January at Unity Pavilion where they shared a report of their work as well as updates on a number of topics and forthcoming events. One surprise announcement was that apparently 1737 crore rupees (US $ 213,141,601) has been approved for the development of Auroville, but it was unclear if this had been approved by the Government of India or by the Governing Board.

On Friday 20th January, around 500 residents participated in a meeting which had the intention, as the organizers put it, to co-create a space to review the past year, reflect on the present and revive our collective strength and action, and find practical steps and actions that can be taken now to “walk a few steps in the direction we want to see, while addressing today’s priorities”. Participants were reminded of the scale of Auroville’s achievements over the past 50+ years, and of the huge disruption that the community has experienced over the past twelve months. People were asked what they had learned from this, and how they see the way forward. What was strongly expressed was a refusal to revert to the previous status quo, but to find a new way forward based upon our deepest principles, while resisting everything that attempted to destroy them.

Some participants in the Wednesday meeting in the Tibetan Pavilion have been meeting with members of FO-appointed groups as ‘Aurovilians to Aurovilians’ in an attempt to touch something deeper, beyond the barrier of defensive arguments. They encourage people to continue doing this, both formally and informally.

In October the RA selected groups sought to get a sense of the community’s feelings and thoughts on the topic of starting a restorative process between the Residents’ Assembly (RA), Governing Board (GB), and International Advisory Council (IAC). Now the results of that survey, in which 235 confirmed Aurovilians and Newcomers participated, have been released.

In answer to the question, ‘What things do you think needs to happen before we can come together and talk?’, 63% said they wanted to have trust in whoever facilitated such a process, 60% wanted to be sure that all views would be represented, and 52% said they wanted an individual or group to do something, or stop doing something, before we can come together and talk. Regarding the latter response, 78% cited actions to be taken by either the Secretary, the Office of the Secretary, the Governing Board, the International Advisory Council and /or the groups installed by the Office of the Secretary or Governing Board. These included recognising the Residents Assembly, no more visa problems, and the dismissal of FIRs filed against Aurovilians.

While 15% said that they would be ready to start without any prior conditions being met, the report concluded that “For the large majority of respondents (74%), there are criteria to meet before starting a reconciliation process”.

The RA Working Committee stated, “It has come to our knowledge that an unknown group of people referring to themselves as ‘AVF Legal’ has been sending threatening communications to residents over the past few weeks”. They added, “Unsigned emails from ‘AVF Legal’ may be ignored since this group does not have any standing or legitimacy whatsoever and have previously refused to identify themselves.”

The RA WC also state that rumours circulating that they have lost legal cases are untrue, and that the FAMC case in the Madras High Court was withdrawn in order to be resubmitted after evaluating all possibilities.

Regarding the appeal by the Foundation Office against the National Green Tribunal judgement, the case was listed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday 17th of January. However, the hearing was adjourned by the Auroville Foundation due to logistical issues. The next hearing is to be taken up in the second week of March.

In connection with the Evergreen/Abri Corner land dispute, the case is scheduled for judgement on 31st January. Meanwhile, the local businessman who is claiming this land has succeeded in getting FIRs filed against 32 individuals, including some Land Board members and other Aurovilians who were keeping a presence on the sites. The RA Working Committee is taking advice from its advocates about what to do.

The News and Notes editors have been publishing reports from both the Foundation Office (FO) supported groups and those selected by the Residents Assembly. Recently, however, reports from the latter groups have not been appearing, and it was reported that a notice has been sent to the editors by FO groups threatening them with legal action if they publish anything from ‘irresponsible people’, i.e. groups selected by the Residents Assembly. In response, the Auroville Council wrote, “We wish to emphasize that the N&N is an independent service for and by the residents of Auroville. Thus no fraction of the community can claim to have control over it or pressurize the editors in favor or against groups.”

One of the editors subsequently explained that the Foundation Office would not allow any further communications from RA appointed groups until the Register of Residents has been completed.

The FO L’avenir d’Auroville / ATDC reports it is now fully focused on implementing and realising the Galaxy Master Plan. Therefore, “All existing and planned buildings will be checked against the parameters given in the Master Plan. If found to be in violation with these parameters, solutions to bring them in line with the Master Plan will be looked into.”

In this connection, several Aurovilians whose houses (‘red assets’) are located on the planned Radials and Outer Ring Road have received mails from the FO appointed ‘Resettlement Group’ informing them that these buildings may be dismantled in the near future. This despite the National Green Tribunal having ruled that no further work can take place until complete Environmental Clearance and Detailed Development Plans (DDPs) for the future city have been put in place - a ruling that still stands even though the AVFO is appealing it to the Supreme Court.

Most of the residents of Surrender have written an open letter expressing their concern that youth residents of Muyerchi house in Surrender have been informed by the FO Housing Service to vacate the building by 8th January, due to the claim that renovations are needed. The residents write, “As a community, we would like to make clear that we do not accept or agree with the eviction of the Muyerchi youth for reasons that do not make sense and are unacceptable for not only practical but also ethical and moral reasons... While it is understandable that regular renovations may need to be done for Auroville assets, this does not seem to be the real intention behind evicting the youth from Muyerchi. The building is only 10 years old and it seems it has already had work done recently on it.”

Later the FO Housing Service clarified that the decision to renovate came after it was observed that the building was “unkept …As observed it was decided to renovate the building including electrical and plumbing”. They also said that “There were concerns raised that Muyerchi residents are not respecting the [HS] guidelines”. The statement ended by saying “once the renovation is completed, [we will] invite [the residents] back on condition to respect the guidelines and agree to the increase of the contribution”

Regarding housing, the FO FAMC stated that from now on all Aurovilians must work only with the Housing Service for the allocation and use of the residential asset/premises for their own use. No subletting or operating of guest facilities are to be undertaken at any time. Any allocation of housing assets for Newcomers or volunteers will be done solely by the Housing Service. Moreover, any resident going out of station for a period longer than 8 weeks must provide the housing asset to the Housing Service for others’ use via house sitting arrangements facilitated by the Housing Service.

The FO FAMC announced that they have identified ten key areas that need dedicated full time project leaders to take them forward under its direct guidance. The FO FAMC invited community members to apply for these new roles in areas like the green sector; accounts auditing and reporting; BCC and city service; economy, finances and budgeting planning; housing/building service; land resources management; hospitality sector; and health and healing sector.

The RA selected Working Groups expressed concerns that certain individuals associated with the Office of the Secretary are ‘usurping the role and functions’ of the Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) constituted under the Funds and Assets Management Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly (RA).They write, “Those individuals usurping the legitimately constituted BCC are acting in a careless and harmful manner by removing maintenance support of working group people selected by the RA, are attempting to obtain sensitive information from residents concerning contributions, and funding their own self-appointed groups, without following any previously agreed-upon procedure nor showing any form of accountability.”

In the current financial year, the FO BCC reported we have a deficit of around 50 lakhs per month and our reserves are low. Nevertheless, they had revised all maintenances by 10% from December 2022, while increasing the City Services contribution from Rs 3,470 to Rs 3,800 to partly cover the expenses of the increased monthly budget. They also noted that they are projecting an increase of 30% in the number of senior Aurovilians seeking home-care every year, and are currently facing challenges to cover the costs of the increasing needs.

There are plans for Krishna Das, the well-known mantra musician, to offer a live chanting event in the Amphitheatre on 12th February to launch the ‘Science and spirituality’ summit.

However, there is concern that the event has been planned without consultation with the Residents Assembly, and that the Amphitheatre is not the correct venue because of the “vital energy that such events bring”. Matthew Andrews of AVIUSA replied that he doesn’t expect a huge crowd of 3,000, and that the Amphitheatre had been chosen after researching other Auroville venues which turned out to be unsuitable.

In her New Year address to the community, the Secretary clarified that out of the 1065 recommendation letters that had been issued, 993 had been issued for the period requested by the applicant. Another 66 had been given for a period of one year, and in two cases it had been done for three months. In about 5-6 months, when the systems are in place, it should be possible to issue visa recommendation letters almost immediately.

Later, the Foundation office announced that from the 23rd January 2023 the recommendation letters for visa extension, registration and letters of recommendation for abroad would be available at the Auroville Residents Service (RS) office, meaning that people would not have go to the Auroville Foundation office for the letters any more.

The 62nd meeting of the Governing Board took place on 27th December in Raj Bhavan, Chennai. It is reported that the agenda and minutes of the meeting have not yet been communicated with the RA Working Committee or the Residents Assembly, as requested.

After India assumed the presidency of the G20 during 2023, the Union Government planned to organise around 200 events across India. One of these was an environment-related conference in Puducherry at the end of January, attended by about 50 delegates from India and other G20 countries. Some also visited Auroville on the 31st January, which was locked down to outside visitors for the day.

Meanwhile, the FO FAMC has encouraged Auroville commercial units, restaurants and guest houses to add a G20 logo along with one for the 150th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo when they communicate with their clients.