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Massbulletin 05.11.24
RA WCom: Letter to GB and MoE re Evergreen land grab
Dear Community,
We are sharing with you here a letter sent to the Governing Board and International Advisory
Council yesterday regarding the very disturbing situation regarding the forceful land grab at
Evergreen by the 'land developer', PKS. A similar letter was also sent to the Ministry of
Education.
Other actions are being taken by us, our land resource people, Evergreen residents and other
concerned residents.
We believe there are strong grounds to file and win an appeal in spite of the current distressing
situation on the ground so we are urging the AVFO and GB to take quick and strong legal action
to regain this precious land of Auroville.
In service,
The Working Committee of the RA
Aravinda, Bharathy, Chali, Mael (TOS), Matthieu, Prashant, Valli
_____________________________
Dear Respected Chairman and members of the Governing Board,
We must bring to your attention a very urgent matter that requires your intervention.
Due to the delay by the Ministry of Education in appointing a Secretary or Acting Secretary,
there is a vacuum of authority within the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO) here that is
resulting in loss of land, loss of trees and a potential law and order risk.
There is a piece of land on the roadside near Evergreen community that was in the peaceful
possession of Auroville for over 32 years and for which land taxes were paid, but which was
forcibly taken over by one land shark named PK Subramaniam (PKS) in June 2022. Residents
managed to stop him from taking complete possession by going on site repeatedly until finally
at the insistence of the Residents, the Secretary at that time, Jayanti Ravi, had a case filed in the
Tindivanam Court. An interim order was subsequently given in favor of the AVF. Unfortunately,
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the AVFO and the Land Board appointed by the (former) Secretary were negligent and did not
take immediate repossession of this land despite repeated requests from the residents.
PKS recently got a ruling in his favor from the Tindivanam court and the negligence described
above has helped him to now continue with his forcible possession of the disputed land without
proper delineation. The survey that was submitted to the court is simply a report from the court
appointed surveyor who surveyed the property Mr PKS claims as his. There is no deed
document by the previous owners, Sridhar and Prabakaran (brothers), or PKS indicating where
the alleged remaining land they claim is located, so it’s impossible to know where, in fact, these
lands are in the larger plot, and there is no proper FMB. Therefore, according to our documents
there is no ‘extra land’ as they claim.
Please note that earlier Ms. Meenakshi had wrongfully added PKS plots to a list of lands to be
acquired, as requested by the Chairman. This mistake was pointed out to Ms. Meenakshi who
acknowledged that it was a mistake and said she would rectify it. It is most unfortunate that the
list wasn't, in fact, rectified and was used in court as a favorable argument that Mr. PKS owned
the land.
The fact that there is no Secretary has resulted in an appeal not being filed and in the absence
of this PKS came on Sunday, 3rd November, with JCBs, chainsaws and enforcers and cleared and
cut trees. The police were called and the clearing was slowed down temporarily by insisting that
this work must be done in the presence of a government surveyor and Auroville Land Board
surveyors to ensure that the court order is respected. However, the clearing continued.
No Land Board members or AVFO officers came to the site despite repeated calls to Mrs
Meenakshi (Special Officer Land) and Land Board member Krishnamurthy who alleged they
were on the way but did not appear.
OSD, Mr. Seetharaman, who supposedly has ‘Overall Charge’ in the absence of a Secretary, is
not here, which is an untenable situation. We reached out to the Deputy Secretary, Ms.
Swarnambika, and she spoke directly to the police on site, requesting them to stop action until
clarity is reached vis-a-vis the exact location of the boundaries.
We humbly request you to do whatever is in your power to ensure that an appeal is filed in this
case at the earliest and that all proper legal processes are followed in this matter. We also ask
that you convey to the relevant ministries the urgency of appointing a resident Secretary who
will take strong and quick action to protect Auroville’s lands. Neglecting this is causing great
damage and loss to Auroville’s assets and the risk of encouraging violent land speculators to
take advantage of the lack of authoritative action, and possibly resulting in law and order
situations.
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We are ready to meet you or provide more information by email at any time.
Sincerely,
The Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly of the Auroville Foundation
Aravinda Maheshwari, Chali Grinnell, Ilayabharathy Somasundaram, Mael Shanti Vidal (TOS),
Matthieu Gardelle, Prashant Hedao, Valli Senthilkumar
Cc: International Advisory Council Members