‘Foundation taking over Auroville’s self governance bodies’

The Auroville working committee that was elected through a Residents’ Assembly Decision-making vote has alleged that the Auroville secretariat was circumventing the community mandate to take over self governance bodies in the universal township.

A press note said the situation relating to internal governance in Auroville still remains unresolved. The situation was recently escalated by the Foundation office by making a false criminal complaint against six Aurovilians for an internal administrative matter. Subsequently, more steps have been taken to gain control of the functions of the Residents’ Assembly, which as per the Auroville Foundation Act is mandated to ‘organise various activities relating to Auroville’, the press note said.

After taking over the internal communication and press platforms of Auroville, and refusing to recognise decisions of the Residents’ Assembly, the latest move by the secretariat had been to appoint hand-picked residents to the Working Committee, Funds and Assets Management Committee and Town Development Council. The nomination of members of the TDC and appointment of members to the Working Committee and FAMC is a prerogative of the residents represented by the Residents’ Assembly, the press note said.

According to the press note, in past one year, with a spirit of working together, countless attempts have been made to integrate diverse options to arrive at a synthesis on key decisions concerning direction of development in Auroville. However, the office of Secretary has not been able to play a neutral role to integrate the diversity of Auroville and has stood with a rigid view of how things should be.