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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