#theaurovillefiles #auroville #auroville52 #landmafia #aurovillenews #newsandnotes #BJP #villipuramcollector #landboardauroville #landdonations
AMIDST COVID-19 LOCKDOWN CORRUPTION OF LAND MAFIA CONTINUES...
A well educated Indian Tamilian Female Aurovilian lawyer who has been working in Auroville Foundation for over 3 years and is an active member of land board of Auroville blows the whistle on malpractices of Land Board members and their extended support to land encroachments. Seeing that no action is initiated by the Working Committee or Auroville Foundation, a statutory body under the Government of India, she wrote to The Auroville Files for safety, protection and action for True Auroville to blossom. It is also noted that Working Committee is alleged to manipulate and misguide the State Police when they file FIRs - every case reflects the same only - or they sit quiet with no action in exchange for favors.
It is imperative that a high level investigation is necessary to find out the links of the activities of Aurovilians who help Land Mafia. Auroville Land Board is alleged to be working clandestinely and palpably in cahoots with land mafia and the Government does not take stringent action for reasons best known to the Hon. Chairman of Auroville Foundation Dr. Karan Singh.
What kind is Autonomy is above law and charter of Auroville itself? And we will ensure that truth prevails and action will happen - no matter what the opposition. Please note that Land Mafia of Tamilnadu is very dangerous and heckle people in broad daylight on the main roads of Auroville and if Aurovilians are nurturing the same under the protection extended by the Hon. Chairman, Working Committee and Auroville Foundation - what does this circus mean ?
The Aurovilian Female Lawyer states her life is in grave danger, not withstanding the trauma inflicted on her by members of Land Board and other Aurovilians. Is Resident Assembly of Auroville sleeping ?
Auroville Foundation Officers, FAMC, Land Board & Working Committee should be booked under the Anti Corruption Act read with relevant sections of the IPC and Anti Land Grabbing Cell. We will pray to the divine and ensure law and charter prevails.
Time for Government of India to take control of lands of Auroville for proper management, amidst the crisis of Covid-19 which the corrupt will use for their advantage to buy time. Auroville CANNOT manage itself with crooks sitting in important matters of land and economics. 400 Acres of Land is alleged to have been usurped by the corrupt Aurovilians in such a manner and other modus-operandi.
Post the serious allegations levied by the Aurovilian Lawyer, she was sacked by the Land Board Members stating "she is not a team player" which means anyone who joins Land Board must partake in corruption against Auroville. We are not concerned which members are guilty or not, its a system which has been placed and the Puppet Masters of this System should face the law as all murders and violence in and around Auroville all points to them directly.
*** We do not hold any responsibility of the names given and allegations levied by the Aurovilian. This is the factual contents without any censorship as it is not needed. Our research and investigation is parallel and also points out to the same. The source has been duly verified and we do see a lot of facts and truth in these serious allegations ***
The electronic mail exchanges in descending order :
The Aurovilian Lawyer Writes : Names of some Aurovilians involved in Land Corruption :
Dear WC & FAMC,
First of all I would like to clarify VikramRam's claim in all his emails that I prepared the land board 2019 report in his publication below, was not correct. On the contrary, I did discuss the following issues with 2 FAMC members and 1 WC member informally, with the sole intention to inform them of the state of affairs of LB and to bring about a change, since I was highly uncomfortable to be a part of certain transactions. However, I did not intend to seek external help to intervene into Auroville affairs. Further, when I read the report, I wrote to the FAMC and WC of my observations. However, I fail to understand who could have shared Vikram of my email to WC & FAMC upon which he has created a huge storm and published a slandering article against me on his website. Nonetheless, I would like to bring a few issues to your attention that confirms that our existing way of administration and transactional methods are, indeed, not conducive for Auroville:-
1. Banu’s brother land encroachment: L’avenir Balamurugan and Land board Staff Krishnamurthy are liaising with the revenue department authorities regarding the patta cancellation of AV land (opp. Dinesh tea shop) which was fraudulently transferred to Banu’s brother’s name. If you peruse the land board file, you would be able to correlate the dates of events of this patta transfer and the fencing of this land. It is suffice to say that the previous LB team had been effectively fighting this encroachment keeping the land in our possession, however, it was boldly fenced once the team changed. But Yuval maintains that this encroachment was the fault of the previous group and protects Banu. Banu in turn backs Yuval in the clean consciousness sub-group, which is formed only to frame Peter-Clarence-Smith of corruption during the year 1996 and make him pay all the compensation and send him out of the country. All the members, especially Banu, Rajavelu, Helena and Padhmanabhan strongly backed Yuval on this and Renu mentioned once that Peter used to take money in bags illegally for land dealings, hence, he deserves this. I found the cornering of Peter alone for the whole group’s work, confusing, however, a lot of money and energy are spent on this clean consciousness exercise just because Banu, Rajavelu and Yuval strongly feels that Peter deserves to compensate all the money in AV and quit India with nothing.
In fact, Balamurugan (L'avenir consultant) conveyed to Yuval, in the presence of Renu, Helena, Rajavelu and I, on 28th February 2020 (Friday) that somebody from land board is leaking all the information to Banu’s brother and that the tahsildar and other officials are simply not acting on any of AV requests regarding the cancellation of Banu’s brother’s name from the patta of AV land. And Yuval mentioned to him that he knew who is leaking this information. Although, LB claims that Banu does not involve in this case due to conflict of interest, Krishnamurthy is handling the revenue department liaison. Banu supported Krishnamurthy in the cases of Naicker land negotiation and in Ansari land (Alankuppam) negotiation in which Krishnamurthy negotiated the price with LB, on behalf of the seller as a broker. This is the case, where the seller offered the price of 16 lakh per acre during site visit, which was later negotiated by Krishnamurthy for 39 lakh with Helena, in my presence. Helena ignored my feedback and later pushed this purchased with Banu, Renu, Rajavelu, Padhu and Yuval. I maintained my disagreement to the unnatural price hike and Krishnamurthy’s (land board staff) role negotiating for the seller. So, Krishnamurthy works for Banu in this negotiation against AV. Almost all the members are very soft on this land encroachment and slowing down the legal action.
2. Naicker land purchase negotiation: I have already given you a separate report on blocking of the Naicker land purchase (15 acres) near Sidhdhartha farm next to Irumbai temple. Please refer to my last email (7th Feb 2020) to you. In this case also Krishnamurthy is involved and Banu gradually influenced the team to drop the purchase on mere stories without any supporting documents. Renu, Rajavelu and Yuval backed Banu while Helena chose to stay silent, although she did not agree. This land is being negotiated by a real estate broker (from Krishnamurthy’s village) and the owner indicated that Krishnamurthy approached him to sell it to that broker. Rajavelu aggressively backs Krishnamurthy in all these, since he is his mother’s own brother and Renu and Yuval blindly backs Banu and Rajavelu in all their transactions.
3. Negotiating members: It is true that the negotiations are being done only by Banu, Rajavelu and Padhmanabhan and other members don’t feel confident to talk to the sellers and I am purposefully discouraged from participating under the pretext that I do not know the village practices. Here, I noticed a huge flaw that the price negotiations are done the village way, the extortionist way, not the professional way of negotiation. This disadvantages Auroville, since the negotiating members are very lenient and considerate in giving exorbitant prices, and most of the time, either the sellers are their own relatives or their village clan, so the deciding factor becomes either pressure or favour and not reasonable pricing and negotiation. The donations were taken rather too carelessly. Helena famously says that Mandakini Lucien Brun has a high ego because she raises the donation and hence, she hates her. She had the same attitude with all the donors and she was disrespectful of handling the donation fund, which I found rather ungrateful and irresponsible.
4. Land purchase priority: The priority of the lands to be purchased are being decided by the negotiating members’ individual sentiments and desires and not according to the available lands for purchase. For example, from fertile region, a foreign aurovilian kept insisting on purchasing the connecting lands that came at a reasonable price (she brought the land owner directly to LB), which everyone rejected since all the members had a personal unfavourable opinion on the aurovillian who brought the owner. My only voice suggesting to look into that purchase which is a connecting land between AV lands, inside green belt was ignored by my team and at some point she got frustrated and she is now leaving AV for good.
5. Swindling of money by staff on daily basis: On the misuse of land board accounts, yes, two of the staffs who are close to Banu, Rajavelu, yuval and Padhmanabhan alone are used for most of the works, while land board has a whole lot of other staffs. Initially Renu told me that Krishnamurthy was fired by the previous team for leaking the LB information to the village in an encroachment matter, who was later hired by new team. I checked the information and the incident was indeed shockingly true. You may check with previous team members.
6. Once, I was present when Adhi, land board staff, was asking for Rs.1,50,000/- on voucher, based on a pink trip sheet, convincing Helena to consider it as bill. Helena did not understand the Pink sheet or the bill, but she quickly obliged to his request. I intervened and requested him to bring the invoice and not the trip sheet. He got offended and Helena immediately jumped on me to protect him by shouting at me that I am making unwanted accusations. Later, Padhmanabhan personally attacked me in WC saying I don’t trust the staff. I just asked for the bills and insisted to Helena that we cannot give a huge amount on the voucher. Since then, the staff have specific instructions from other LB members, not to let me access any accounts or to discuss any work with me. When I brought this matter to the working committee, Helena, Yuval, Padhma and Renu shouted at me saying Land board is an independent group and has nothing to do with FAMC or working committee and I should stop running to FAMC and WC. In spite of my objection, the money was given to Aadhi. Aadhi later bullied me saying why the hell you are a member of landboard, in the presence of Rajavelu, which Banu justified saying this is the way he used to talk to her since he is her relative.
7. Gokulam Farm: The landboard members did not take any steps to protect the 2 ½ acres of this unmanned land stewarded by a local aurovillian, until I foresaw the legal consequences of the current situations and unofficially requested the FAMC to take action to avoid any unpleasant legal consequences owing to the emotional situation associated with the aurovilian’s wife, under whose possession the AV land was left to. The land board members casually gossiped about the situation and covered up the issue. This is yet another example of personal favours to village buddies. This issue was not looked into until I escalated it to the FAMC members.
8. Auro-oceanic negotiation: In this matter, Rahul from housing service evaluated the building and submitted an Assessment report to landboard, in which I found that the land (30 cents) was priced at 90 lakh and inventories such as bath towels, doormats, spoons, etc., valued at a whopping 12 lakh with the total arrived at some exorbitant price in crores. I pointed this out to Renu and all the landboard members and stated that this pricing is unreasonable. Especially when we have lastly purchased an acre for 50 lakh in that area, paying 90 lakh for 30 cent in Auro-oceanic would hike-up the land price in that area. Later Rajavelu, pressurised me through some AVlians, who personally helped me in my housing issue, to not raise any objection for the negotiation at 4 ½ to 5 crore. I was rather stubborn and later, he worked out that I am dropped out of this matter. Since then, he was also harbouring a grudge against me and called me an enemy to local tamilians, which is not true. I have been giving a lot of free legal services to the local tamil aurovilians to repay the debt to them. In fact, once when an aurovilian was attacked by Vikram, I had to oblige, to explain to him of the legal position of this person's case, which Rajavelu has been using against me, in landboard after the Auro-oceanic incident.
9. During the month of November, 2019, Rajavelu called me one evening and informed me that Yuval has taken Rs.5,00,000/- from the Land board funds for building a compound wall for his own house in eternity, which I checked with Banu, who said that it was done with the approval of WC and FAMC and it was a right utilisation of funds for Yuval’s property. However, I noticed that when other Aurovilians, for example Angad came for fencing of AV lands to protect from the neighbour politician Tholamur Kannan, Aadhi, LB staff told Helena, in my presence that why should LB give him any money and Helena just obliged his orders. I noticed that she was quiet an ineffective executive member very obliging, with an argument that her integrity to the group is very intact. I was surprised that she thinks that protecting the wrongdoings and misgivings of fellow members and staff is her integrity and not to Auroville or the trusting donors who devotedly & dedicatedly raise donation and trust the land board members for spending it meaningfully for the benefit of AV. She may not have any individual interests, however, she was too obliging to the individual’s interests. In principle, LB does not have a policy of giving funds for fencing stewarded lands, whatever may be the situation, however, it was relaxed by Yuval for his own property to the tune of 5 lakh rupees.
10. These are a few instances that I could write. Without blaming any individual, I would like to carefully put it here that the members or staff from the local villages inevitably have a personal interest or a fear or favour to oblige to, which is the result of the encroachment and other legal issues that we have been fighting today. Even though we have a big team of Land board staff, we always get the information of encroachment only after the land is gone out of our possession, which I do not understand, since, checking and protecting the unmanned lands are their duty since most of these lands are situated in and around their villages and they knew the encroachments and the encroachers as well. Hence, anyone from the surrounding village would not be able to give up their family, friends’ and their village interests over AV interests. Therefore, it is very important that a full-fledged Estate Office is set up with professionally and technically equipped personnel to administer lands and fight the encroachments, land grabs, legal cases, etc. So, yes, it is true that LB is left at the mercy of local staff and local members since the foreign members are very obliging either because of fear or for some personal favour. With a little research, I found out that the previous members had absolute control over the staff on the administration and the accounts. You may notice a shift from the last group to the current group on funds spent on daily maintenance, procurement, administration, etc.with proper bills compared to the current group. Hence, my insistence for an internal forensic audit.
11. I do understand and agree that in the past we had been very lenient and magnanimous in our land dealings and transactions, however, in today’s scenario, we cannot afford to have a defeatist attitude towards our land administration, purchase, pricing, enforcement of land protection, etc., My objective was only to ensure that AV is not taken for granted and an appropriate legal body within Auroville is set up that could tackle the legal challenges in the administration. Besides, we cannot be bullied by the speculators, realtors or brokers in extorting higher prices from AV. At some point we need to work towards having an evaluator from the tax department who could evaluate the land prices with which AV could set adequate parameters in land pricing and negotiations. Besides, having a full-fledged estate office would eventually facilitate enforcement of land acquisition process to acquire lands for AV. Currently, LB administration and land protection is stifled under some of the above mentioned flaws, which could be internally set right. The decision is yours.
12. I never intended to make it this big, however, the situation has escalated to a level where, I am in the eye of the storm, hence, I do not have any choice but to write to WC and FAMC and clarify, despite my greatest fears of facing the consequences, probably personal attacks from these individuals and the people whose interests I might have affected during my presence in the land board. Further, after these incidents and the current developments, I do not think it would be feasible to function alongside the landboard team. Besides, I am down with a back injury and would like to take my time to reflect upon the future decision about my participation in land board.
Hope you would be very discreet in sharing this email, keeping in mind my personal safety and my family's safety.
Regards,
Jayendra Saraswathi,
16-03-2019
Attachment: The Auroville Files, Feb 14
Land Board Members (Accused) Write :
Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 12:38
Hello Jayendra,
In our team meeting (6members) have unanimously agreed to remove you
from the Land Board mailing list based on the situation. The official
groups will be notified (and the community at large if required).
Thank you,
Land Board members
(Banu, helena, Padmanabhan, Rajavelu, Renu, Yuval)
--
Sincerely,
Secretary
Land Board
1st Floor, Town Hall
Auroville 605101
Ph: 0413 2623699
Carel (Self Appointed Foreigner as head of state of Auroville) in Working Committee writes in his personal wisdom and capacity : Meaning behind his suggestions "All attempts to make Aurovilian lawyer follow corruption has failed hence we approve her being sacked by Land Board" and without any legal investigation authority since we are also alleged to support the mafia, we will now investigate course of action ! Carel should be booked under Anti Corruption Act and Whistleblowers Act of India protects the Lawyer from being sacked, which is above any so called unfair policies - We hope the Lawyer stands up for The Divine Truth and not be harassed by corrupt Aurovilians and it is time for the Residents of Auroville to see the truth threadbare
Tue, 17 Mar 2020 at 19:33
Dear members of the Working Committee and FAMC,
Please find below a communication from Jayendira Saraswathi, addressed to you, which she has asked me, as a friend, to communicate to you. She has informed me that this communication has also been sent to the Chairman and Secretary of the Auroville Foundation. She has asked that you all will be very discreet and not share this email, keeping in mind her personal and her family's safety.
After this email, I understand that she has withdrawn from the Land Board, after other Land Board members have removed her from the common email account and whatsapp group. According to the Participatory Working Groups document, it is possible for a group to remove a member if all other members agree, which may have been the case. (Members who are not executing their work as assigned by the group and/or turn out to be ill-matched with the team can –after all attempts of integration have failed – be asked by the Working Group to step out. For specific tasks they can serve the Group as a Resource Person. In a case like this, it will be announced in the monthly working group report and through the RAS in a transparent, open way.) The Working Committee has not yet received a confirmation of this.
Jayendra’s observations and allegations need to be looked into. I would prefer it if the Working Committee members and the members of the Funds and Assets Management Committee meet to decide on the best course of action.
Carel
(in personal capacity)
The Aurovilian Lawyer Writes :
Mon, Mar 16, 2020, 13:05
Dear working committee & FAMC,
You are aware of the gross malpractices of landboard that could invite severe legal consequences, which i tried to correct internally within the group as a member and later i had brought to your notice for internal corrective action, since the rest of the team ignored my legal reasoning and suggestions. In the meanwhile, i am given to understand that the landboard members Banu, Renu, Yuval, Helena and rajavelu have decided to remove me from the team without any discussion with me.
I am surprised at their decision since I was selected by the residents and a few members decided to remove disregarding the community or residents assembly, as i didn't confirm to their malpractices.
I need a confirmation from the working committee and famc if it was discussed and decided in concurrence with you or was arbitrarily decided by them.
In any which case, please note my official resignation with my declaration on record that I was not an accomplice to the malpractices of current members ways, disregarding the legal mandates and that time and again I insisted on the need for internal protocols on the financial management of funds, Grants and donations in landboard and the land administration and involvement of sitting members in land encroachment and utilization of funds for personal benefits. I must say here that I was quite appalled at the insincerity and ingratitude of certain members towards donors. Hence, checks and balances are highly inevitable and necessary even in a group that functions on donations and self-regulation.
As a responsible and honest resident with all integrity only to the Mother, Sri Aurobindo and Auroville (refusing to subject my integrity to individuals in the group upon fear or favour), I also insist that a full fledged estate office with technically qualified people, must be established for land administration and management and the landboard to be dissolved to avoid future embarrassment to Auroville with internal forensic investigative audit on the accounts and land management audit on encroachment and land protection and land administration.
With this i would like to quote Sri Aurobindo, although, even Sri. Aurobindo's quotes may definitely be found offensive by people, in the current situation.
."We should be absolutely unsparing in our attack on whatever obstructs the growth of the nation, and never be afraid to call a spade a spade…Respect of persons must always give place to truth and conscience…We have strong things to say: let us say them strongly; we have stern things to do; let us do them sternly” - Sri Aurobindo I remain sincere only to the Divine Mother. Jayendra Saraswati
The Aurovilian Lawyer Writes:
Thu, 5 Mar 2020, 23:34
Dear WC & FAMC,
I read the below email today and it was brought to my notice that the landboard members have deliberately indulged in community shaming, defaming me, linking me to this email. Since I had been away from work with a physical ailment from Monday I wasn't immediately aware of the contents of the below email. Hence, this delay in bringing this email to your notice, confirming most of the contents as true and factually & materially correct.
Therefore, I, as a resident and fellow member of landboard insist that corrective action be taken. Accusing me is not going to hide the truth that is there for us to see.
As you may be aware, I had time and again, brought to your notice certain irregular practices of current land board members for corrective actions and in that background some contents of this email are factually true, (which I am ready to testify with corroborating evidences available on record) that needs your immediate attention and corrective action, as parent group responsible for land board decisions, (which is a sub group under Famc) and within the purview of the working committee under the AVF act.
I put it on record here that I had always expressed my concerns about certain practices of land board that are unhealthy for Auroville and duly brought it to your attention as well. While so, accusing me and defaming me to cover up their mistakes will not be tolerated.
Please note that I have not violated the group integrity as a member, rather striving hard to protect the integrity of Auroville, as a resident and a responsible legal practitioner, being able to weigh the pros and cons.
In the light of the above, I insist that the WC and Famc consider this email seriously to reinforce corrective actions and do an internal forensic audit of landboard transactions.
I reiterate that my email is well within the integrity of the charter of the mother and AVF act and my conscience & personal integrity and that I will not tolerate any personal accusations, rather I insist that they clean their own conscience. I neither intend to be a whistle blower nor a revolutionary, but an accountable member, being unable to join hands with majority members wrong actions in landboard, who believes that accountability and liability of LB decisions lies only with the WC and AVF. I find it fundamentally wrong.
Rgds,
Jayendra
Comentarios