Land Board

On November 11th, an article in the Times of India mentioned that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (All India Anna Dravidian Progressive Federation - AIADMK), currently the main opposition party in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, which has great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry, demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's primary domestic crime-investigating agency, into the alleged irregularities in land exchanges at Auroville.

Residents of Felicity and Happiness, two outlying communities having a population of about 20 to 30 residents, have informed the RA-WCom that they are facing challenges since they learned in March of this year that a prime parcel of land of approximately an acre and a half which faces the old Auroville Road had been exchanged for land in the Master Plan area.

Sathiya, a second-generation Aurovilian, speaks about her upbringing and her unwavering commitment to Auroville's ethos despite external pressures.

On June 2nd, Mahalingam, the husband of Mayavathi and father of Saravana and Gopi, passed away. Mahalihgam was one of the early Tamil people to join Auroville in 1975.

The Working Committee constituted by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has shared with the community extensive information regarding land exchanges and transactions that have taken place in the last two years.

Land exchange is very much in the news at present, with Auroville land being exchanged for privately-owned land in AuroOrchard and mooted as a possibility in places like Forecomers and Pebble Garden.

In June 2023, for 2 days, workers employed by the AVFO Land Board, cut a total of 1,863 trees aged between 3-15 years old in Revelation Forest Sanctuary.

The Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) announced that the Residents’ Assembly of Auroville had approved two proposals with majority vote. The proposal that the RA can make an emergency Residents’ Assembly Decision (RAD) at a petition signed by at least 300 residents was approved by 402 participants (98% of all votes cast).

Since the first week of June 2023, the Land Board appointed by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation has been clearing areas of Revelation Forest, one of Auroville’s largest forests, to prepare for the Outer Ring Road under direction of the Auroville Foundation appointed Town Development Council (FO–ATDC).

The Ami/Evergreen land dispute case was heard in Tindivanam on 15th February, but the lawyers for the Land Board and the Auroville Foundation did not appear.

That’s me - the baby sitting on the edge of the windowsill – one of the first children to live in Auroville. I was born in Kampala, Uganda, and I came to Pondicherry with Shyama, my mother, and my two brothers in 1965 when I was one-and-a-half years old.

The first cyclone of the season, named ‘Nivar’, made landfall near Marakkanam, north of Auroville, in the early hours of November 26th. Throughout the night Auroville was subjected to storms and heavy rains, with occasional thunder and lighting and some eerie silences in between.

The A4A team reports on the results of supporters’ solidarity.

For many years Paul Vincent has been involved with trying to protect the land of Auroville. Here he gives his views on the present situation in which private developments in the Auroville area are mushrooming, and suggests what can be done about it.

It’s that time of year again. Aurovilian eyes are burning, heads are aching, throats and noses are sore, and so many of us feel exhausted and nauseous.

When I began serving as the secretary to the Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) in December 2010, there were twelve men, including the Secretary, Auroville Foundation, as well as the Finance and Administration officer, Auroville Foundation, and one woman member.

On Tuesday 13 December, Stephen Raj (Jesudass) from Isaiambalam, left his body in Pondicherry’s Mahatma Gandhi Hospital. Being a heart patient and feeling quite unwell these last weeks, he was being prepared for treatment of a liver infection when the cardiac arrest occurred.

In the article “Acquiring and protecting the lands – the views of the Land Board” which appeared in the October 2016 issue of Auroville Today, reference was made to a statement from the Land Board to the Auroville International Centres that Auroville can develop and build the city for the next 10 years before there would be any standstill caused by non-ownership of a plot of land in the city area.

When the members of the Land Board took office in January 2014 they met with a dire scenario. Funds to purchase lands were in short supply, the sale of outlying lands was blocked, land encroachment was rampant, land grabs and falsifications of land documents by outsiders were discovered, and legal assistance was insufficiently available.

Before Auroville was officially founded in 1968 and before the final location of Auroville was decided by the Mother, disparate plots of land had been bought in the surrounding region.

On February 7th, the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ held at the Unity Pavillion was an encouraging success. Organised by the joint land fundraising teams of Acres for Auroville, GreenAcres and LFAU, the event’s central message was the sacredness of the land, and the need for an intense collective effort to acquire land in Auroville’s Master Plan area now.

The Acres for Auroville Phase Two and GreenAcres campaigns were launched on August 15th.

The Governing Board, in its meeting of August 2014, decided on the merger of all land related working groups, such as the Land and Estate Management group, the Land Resource Management Group, the Land Consolidation Committee and the Land Development Group, into one overarching Land Board of seven persons.

Recently the Town Development Council (TDC) announced that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the Bommayapalayam panchayat. What does this mean, and what is the significance of this initiative?