A set of written questions to the Union Minister of Education mainly on the land exchanges in Auroville by Dr. D. Ravi Kumar, Member of Parliament from Viluppuram constituency, wherein Auroville is situated, were answered in writing by the Minister of State Dr. Sukanta Mujumdar in the Lok Sabha (House of the People, Parliament of India) yesterday 5th August 2024.
The answer was in two parts the first of which started with the statement, “Representations and complaints have been received from several quarters, including the residents of Auroville, on various matters related to activities in Auroville” and proceeded to mention about complaints not related to land exchanges.
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The second para’s concluding sentence said about the land exchanges: “Separately, representations and complaints dealing with land exchanges have been forwarded to Auroville Foundation to examine the merit of the allegations and place in the Governing Board (GB), being the Competent Authority, to recommend suitable course of action”. From the reply given by the Ministry at the Parliament it may be understood that the GB has not sent any such recommendation, as yet.
The remaining parts of the answer dealt with representations/complaints not related to land exchange. It answered the MP's last question, "If the Ministry had any plans to appoint the local member of parliament as an ex officio member of the executive council of the Auroville Foundation, if not, the reasons therefor". The Minister answered as follows:
As per Section 10(3) of the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988, the Foundation
shall consist of three authorities, namely:-
(a) the Governing Board
(b) the Resident’s Assembly
(c) the Auroville International Advisory Council
Appointment of members to the Governing Board and Auroville International Advisory Council is governed by Section 11 and Section 21 of the Auroville Foundation Act respectively. All appointments to these authorities are made by the Central Government in line with the provisions of the Act. Insofar as the Resident’s Assembly is concerned, the authority consists of all the residents of Auroville who are for the time being entered in the register of residents maintained under Section 18 of the Act.
A document containing the questions by the MP and answers by the Minister published by Lok Sabha is available at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14mUvuu375O_8uiDjkuf10vV9xln6aqoL/view?usp=sharing