Issue Nº407-408 – News in brief

In May and June, the Indian Meteorological Department recorded temperatures in parts of Tamil 

Nadu of 2 to 3°C above normal. Temperatures were in the range 35°C to 41.5°C in the plains of north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal areas. 

The early weeks of May brought unexpected rains that broke all records. Normally, at this time of the year, Auroville is lucky to get a 5- or 10-minute thunder shower, which will cool off the evening and water the surface of the ground. This year, Auroville received over 15 cm of rain in the first two weeks, three times the average expected – a mini monsoon. The effect was great: the summer blooms of the trees and shrubs filled the air with rich fragrances.

On June 19th, an Aurovilian who has been residing and actively contributing to the community for more than 34 years, was informed by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer in Chennai that the Secretary, Auroville Foundation, had revoked his visa recommendation. He was not shown the letter from the Secretary and no reasons were given. Due to this he was issued an Exit Permit and told he must leave the country before or on the 1st of July. The RA-WCom informed the community that “all possible actions are being explored to address this deeply disturbing escalation in the current crisis we have been experiencing for almost 2 years” and invited everyone “to invoke the power of the Mother to guide us through these difficult times.”

The Auroville Botanical Garden reported that it is now involved in the scientific monitoring of their plantation programmes. Supported by the Ramco group, Ecosia, and the Franklin Foundation through a Botanical Gardens Conservation International project, they have completed the first of this year’s surveys to check the health and growth of its plantations planted in and around the bio region in colleges, schools and government compounds, as well as within the green belt areas of Auroville. 

The Auroville Botanical Garden has completed the coastal zone plantation programme of a 50 acre site, recreating a coastal forest with local plants adapted to the sandy and salt conditions. Ongoing work focuses now on nurturing the trees and shrubs through the heat of summer, intensified by the surrounding hot sand which is yet to be shaded, which will happen over the next 2 to 3 years as the forest grows and the canopy closes. The firm of Hidesign, owner of the plot, is championing this work and sharing it widely on their social media channel. 

Two plots of lands of in total 2.2 acres, north of Certitude and bordering Prarthna community, have been bought at a cost of more than 1.77 crore per acre, resulting in a steep increase in land purchase price

As the security and accessibility of the @auroville.org.in email system has been compromised for a year, the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has invited all Aurovilians, Newcomers and Friends of Auroville to join a new workspace and email system @auroville.community. “We believe that free, private and accessible communication is a prerequisite to any form of community-led development,” wrote the RA WCom. “The management of this domain will remain a-political, and no other domains will be blacklisted in an attempt to censor dissenting opinions. Our administrators are known and trusted members of the community who have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements to protect the privacy of users. We trust this is a needed step in allowing our community to regain its autonomy in communication, and continue to move closer to its original ideals and aspiration, as envisioned by the Mother.” The system can integrate existing @auroville.org.in, @gmail.com or other email IDs.’

The GB appointed Working Committee (GB-WCom) informed the community that a new Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) has been appointed through an Office Order issued by the Office of the Secretary. The RAS appointed by the community was locked out of its office, as the door lock had been changed by the Town Hall management staff after normal office hours. 

The RA-WCom subsequently issued a statement that the office order is inappropriate as the RAS is an internal facilitation body for the Residents’ Assembly (RA) and the Office of the Secretary has no role to play in selecting or appointing members of an internal service of the Residents’ Assembly. The RA-WCom stated that the act of changing the locks is one more example of the disrespect of the Auroville Foundation office for the wider body of residents. 

Meanwhile, a police complaint has been filed as well as a petition at the Madras High Court to quash (nullify/cancel) this Office Order.

The GB FAMC and Prosperity Services have jointly launched a Prosperity experiment for a three month period. A group of around 100 Aurovilians and Newcomers of various nationalities, backgrounds and family situations will do a practical experiment to follow Mother’s guidelines as expressed in Her Dream. The results will be published and analysed to improve the proposal.

The Entry Board has called on Aurovilians to serve as mentors for Newcomers. Mentors are responsible for supporting the Newcomers by helping them integrate into the life of the Auroville community and its ideals and are the bridge between Newcomers and the Entry Secretariat and the Entry Board. Many applicants are waiting to start their Newcomer process, but the Entry Board is unable to take them in due to either unavailability or unwillingness of mentors. 

The twelfth and concluding volume of the series The English of Savitri was released by Dr. Alok Pandey on June 4th, Shraddhavan’s birthday. The transcription of this last volume had been corrected and edited by Shraddhavan herself during her lifetime. She considered the series her life’s work.

This volume contains commentaries on Book Six: The Book of Fate; Book Eight: The Book of Death; and Book Nine: The Journey in Eternal Night of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri.

The GB appointed Funds & Assets Management Committee (GB-FAMC) announced that it is proposing a new housing facility ‘Prosperity model’ “so that every working Aurovilian will be able to have a house in Auroville ''. The model proposes a monthly donation instead of a lump sum donation, which would eliminate the old method of market valuation of an asset for a house transfer. The funds collected would be used to support Auroville’s housing assets and include the costs of house repairs, panchayat taxes, annual survey of all buildings, repatriation costs and costs of administration for the housing team maintenance and staff. The GB-FAMC estimates that monthly donations would be required for a 7 year period (small houses @ Rs 6 lakhs for singles and couples Rs 7,200/month; medium houses @ Rs 9 lakhs for a couple and a child Rs 10,700/month; and larger houses @ Rs 12 lakhs for a couple and children Rs14,300/ month.) The GB-FAMC believes that “this modality allows for progressively moving all housing assets and also new collective housing projects to be fairly supported for all and maintained adequately without undue burden.”

The AVSST informed the community that as it did not receive any information or notice regarding the recently circulated Office Order issued by the Office of the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, which seems to include a change of executives and team members for this service, the AVSST team will continue its work. It will be temporarily focusing the scope of its services on managing the guards currently employed and the volunteer patrols; managing the check-posts and other entrance points and junctions; managing vehicle access and requests; responding to incidents of thefts, harassment, and unwelcome presence; providing administrative assistance for birth/death certificates, police complaints, police verification reports, passport verification; and escorting external ambulances, fire department, police etc. to the locations of incidents as and when needed. As its email addresses @auroville.org.in have been disabled since 14.04.2023 and as it is an emergency service, AVSST has created a temporary email address: aurovillesafetyteam@gmail.com.

The Town Development Council appointed by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-TDC) informed the community that over the past months it has sent out letters to the Auroville Foundation Secretary, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the GB appointed Town Development Council (GB-ATDC) regarding non-compliance with the National Green Tribunal judgment as it considers that works being done along the Crown Road and in other places in Auroville disregard the NGT judgment. A legal notice alleging contempt of court has been served on the Aurovile Foundation, the persons involved and the CPWD. 

The RA-WCom has advised all Aurovilians to plan ahead and make a living will in the event that one is unable to communicate one’s wishes when medical care is needed. Auroville’s Farewell Team has a form to fill out which states what has to be done with one’s physical body. The RA-WCom also advises making a testament which should cover what to do with one’s money in one’s Financial Service account – should it go to a person or be donated to a specified project or for unspecified use in Auroville; what to do with specific personal movable belongings (can one’s books go to the AV library and one’s clothes to the Freestore and can your friends choose keepsakes and mementos); who will do the clearing of your house; and if there are bank accounts in India, who is nominated to access the account(s). If there are other assets in India, it is recommended to make a testament with a local notary. 

Foreign nationals are advised to contact a local expert or the relevant diplomatic mission for advice on how to regulate one’s possessions abroad, as every country has different regulations regarding legality. In certain situations, testaments are needed, in others not. 

The RA-WCom also advised to include a ‘digital will’, e.g. to state what is to happen with everything that is online, including all social media, all photos as well as all documents on one’s computer(s), mobile phone(s) and other electronic devices. Lastly, the WCom advises to clean out one’s very personal belongings and provide notes for an obituary or write one’s own.

The accounts officer of the Auroville Foundation informed the community that the Register of Residents “will become the official central database repository that will provide linkage to all information pertaining to Auroville residents, place of work and other working groups”, and that “all persons to be entered into the Register of Residents will provide a @auroville.org.in official contact email only.

The accounts officer of the Auroville Foundation informed the community that “all residents when contacting any working groups for work related queries will use their @auroville.org.in email address in order to have a proper response and have it archived for future reference” and that “all trustees, units, services managers are to only use <name-entity>@auroville.org.in to correspond with other Auroville entities within Auroville or other outside entities” and that “all communication with regard to their work should be using the email address domain auroville.org.in as “this allows for proper communication and archival needs.”

The RA-WCom responded to this announcement stating that the @auroville.org.in email service, which was created years ago by Aurovilians as a service to all Aurovilians and Auroville organisations and which has been used for personal, administrative and professional purposes within and out of Auroville, has for more than a year now been under the full control of persons whose identities, roles, powers and intentions have not been communicated publicly, even after multiple requests to do so. These persons can technically do anything to emails addressed to or coming from this domain: read, modify, delete, impersonate or block deliveries and receipts, including all the history, in targeted, manual, or mass automated operations. There is no protection against abuse nor any guarantee that the right to privacy is protected. Consequently, many users have decided to use other email providers, which follow due legal requirements and have clear contracts with their users. The RA-WCom objects that only @auroville.org.in email addresses should be used for all emails within Auroville and that some people have been threatened with being dismissed from their work and responsibilities if they do not exclusively use the @auroville.org.in. Given the opacity of the auroville.org.in service, this is not acceptable.

The GB-TDC has been served a legal notice in response to its email to users of the Kalabhumi borewell, which includes the residents, the Music Studio, CRIPA hall and Aurofilm. The GB-ATDC had stated that the ATDC is a committee of the Governing Board under Section 16 of the AVF Act; that the detailed plans for the Crown are not meant for scrutiny by the residents of Auroville; that Kalabhumi borewell has to be closed, regardless of its efficiency or yield, due to the fact that the borewell will be buried under the concrete stormwater channels on the side of the Crown Road; that the ATDC will seek funds from the GOI for the main water lines; and that users will no longer have to maintain the infrastructure but will have to pay for the cost of networking, water meter and related installations, including cost of labour as well as a monthly water tariff. The legal notice challenges each of these statements and requests that no further steps to cover up the Kalabhumi well be taken. It warns that any illegal activity carried out by the GB-ATDC in the context of the Kalabhumi well shall be dealt with in accordance with the law.

In a two-page report, the RA-TDC informed the community that the Crown Road work undertaken by the CPWD as per the designs of GB-ATDC has been substandard. It involved the destruction of 1,423 metres of a good road built by the Auroville Road Service in the years 2008-2012 with funds provided by the Government of India of about Rs 98 Lakhs; the supply and subsequent annulment of the first tender to build 2.1 km of the Crown with concrete paver blocks due to substandard quality of the blocks; and the revision of the tender to now use precast reinforced concrete slabs for the pavement with a concrete double U-shaped infrastructure channel next to it. The RA-TDC observed that the precast RCC slabs do not comply with any Indian standards and that the carbon emissions from the RCC precast slabs are 952% higher than for the road planned with paver blocks. It also stated that many precast slabs have been laid in a substandard manner, and the works are proceeding slowly.

Deepanam School now has a new Sensory garden for the children to engage with nature. This initiative of Patrizia and Natascha was brought to life with help from the Auroville Botanical Gardens. The concept of Sensory Awareness is a component of the Awareness Through the Body (ATB) programme. Activities are led outdoors as well as indoors for individuals to connect with nature and the elements that make up all matter, within and without.