Category Archives: Infrastructure
GM on Learning Activities in AV
On the 29th May 2017 a general meeting was held at Unity Pavillion to discuss the guidelines for learning activities in Auroville. The main points were the implementation of tax and visa types and restrictions to those with a tourist status.
GM for SolarPower Plant by Varuna
"The solar light is the symbol of the supra-mental light " - The Mother said Varuna is shining bright like the sun, so to speak. A Genaral Meeting was organized by Varuna and TDC to discuss the revised site application for the Solar Plant, it has proposed for Auroville. The meeting was packed with people from Auroville, obviously demonstrating the magnitude of this project. The Solar Power Plant, which proposes to take care of the electrical needs of the entire community for 50,000 future inhabitants of Auroville, had come across a kind of road block regarding the location of the site it had been allocated earlier. The matter was pending and was needed to be addressed by the residents along with the groups involved. In the spirit of Auroville, where mutual respect is above personal ambition, the Varuna team, made ingenious amendments and by the end of their presentation, the general feeling was that they have found out a way to keep the balance in opinions and integrity of their project intact. Much kudos to Varuna for envisioning such a remarkable project along with the state of the art desalination plant and the uphill power storage project all of which are discussed in detail in the presentation. Very soon Varuna can expect list of recommendation for site application from TDC after which it will follow its general procedure and will be posted in the News&Notes for mandatory two weeks notice and if all goes well, finally commence work on this new land for the project. All we can say is, let the force be with you. To download the presentation pdf, please click here.
ITDC presentation of new projects
Fabian did a fabulous job in presenting, the circumstances of 16 new projects , all under development and waiting for various approvals. There was a lot of content to cover and a lot of pending inquiries by the Aurovilians, who attended the presentation. The ultimate intention of the GM presentation was to get a clear consensus on opinions of the residents on the projects. But, many Aurovilians it seemed, had no background information about some of the projects, which led to detailed narratives, which was apart from the intended flow of the presentation. Nonetheless, the residents were quite unified on issues of allocation of lands, in non-complimentary zones. The residents, requested for more data onto the projects, which could only then create a premise of decisions and opinions. ITDC acknowledged these concerns of insufficient data available, and were open for suggestions and volunteers to fill the gaps in administration. Data on lands is formulative of many agencies and thus can always only be a summary of things. At the on-set it is observed, couple of projects have strong objections, by Aurovillians and ITDC seemed to have no way of reaching a clear verdict.
Discuss Kalpana Project G.M.
General Meeting to Discuss the Kalpana Project and our development priorities and methods. The Residents' Assembly Service (RAS) invited the community for a General Meeting to discuss the Kalpana Project on Friday, April 15 at Unity Pavilion
The meeting has given residents an opportunity to: a) Discuss concerns; and b) Seek clarifications regarding the project.
Representatives of the following groups attended this meeting
The Town Development Council (TDC),
The Funds and Asset Management Committee (FAMC)
The Project Holders
Approximate speaker timings:
Intro Jesse and throughout, Alok 8.20 min, Ange 16.32, 2.14, Satyakam 18.28, 40.49, 1.10.14, Devasmita 36.18, Susan P 46.20, JFP 49.50, Vani 50.04, PCS 55.44, Renu 1.02, 2.02, Aneeta 1.06, Sauro 1.13, Ambu 1.26, PVC 1.29, Alain B 1.31, Elvira 1.34, Manolo 1.36, Ramnarayan 1.37, Anita 1.42, Angela 1.46, Helgard 1.48, Olivier B 1.53, Noel 1.55, Sindhuja (AVC) 1.59.30, Aneeta 2.08, Paulien plus several - end
Proposal to restructure TDC
Therre was a general meeting held on Monday April 24 in Unity Pavilion which was a continuation of last months general meeting where the core group came up with fulfilling the task of restructuring Town Planning & Development Council (TDC)/L'Avenir d'Auroville. Last year, the Auroville council was asked to facilitate a process to restructure the TDC, the core group working on this comprised of Martin, Jesse, Sauro, Pashi, Shama, Suhasini, Mamta, Elvira, Lionel and Christiane. This meeting was a preparation for a Resident Assembly Decision-making Event (RAD) May 13 - June 10. The team proposed a revised structure of TDC and asked for the opinions of people present in the meeting on the same. A lot of healthy debate and constructive insights were offered by the members of the community attending the presentation. The feedbacks and comments for last month's meeting were also shared. Involvement of youths was an important point in the discussion. Meeting ended up on a positive note. Follow the links for earlier meetings: http://www.aurovilleradio.org/restructuring-tdc/ http://www.aurovilleradio.org/how-can-we-restructure-the-tdc/
CAT-10 Creating greener Auroville
CAT10- was organized on Mother's birthday to reflect on the 'Joy of building a green universal township: Auroville'. Luigi and team had created this presentation based on the vision of the Mother of an eco-friendly city the Earth needs. It was a very harmonious presentation and was explained in much detail to inspire deeper insights. An innovative presentation style, with 4 panelist from various fields and having pioneering experience in Auroville, to discuss and comment on the presentation content as it moved along from topic to topic. Due to late start, the presentation was cut short but the passion and enthusiasm with which Luigi and panelists presented was abundant. There were many aspects to take away from this presentation, like the suggestion to 'remove the internal fences between communities to concretely foster human unity ' or to increase the use of creepers in a maximum effect manner or use applied research in making internal spaces, external facades and terraces more energy efficient in order to develop greener landscapes including vegetables cultivation. The entire evening and the audience response was very pleasant, ideal to discuss Mother's vision in action. Thank you Luigi, the panelists, the participants and the 'CAT's' to co-create this safe space of reflection on what holds Auroville to the past and what opens to the future.
Interview with David Stein
David Stein presented his plan for the land use of the green belt area. He also speaks about the ways we can build relations with local villagers to increase on our good will. Currently AVF owns only 25% of the land marked out originally for green belt zone. David prepares us for hard work ahead of us, in areas of resolving local governance issues, preservation of ground level water reserves, infrastructure development by local villagers which can hamper the idea behind green belt use. David gave very specific and enlightening methods which can spearhead growth and development and urged for the people of Auroville to adopt to the proposed plan, so that the real work of implementing the plan can begin. He suggested we are losing on time as the development and in some case depletion of certain resources can strangle the growth of the city entirely, for example the rise in salinity in our ground level water reserves. He points out, Auroville is in India and not in isolation and accordingly we must adhere and manage solution under pretext of existing set of defined rules and not be just stuck by comfortable ideals. He in accord with L'avenier are calling for action by means of adopting to a plan.
EH Meeting at Unity Pavilion
There was a European House meeting as a part of regular meetings of International Zone on Monday (17 April) in Unity Pavillion. Main agenda of the meeting was to discuss building of European Pavilion. Meeting was of 30 minutes and it was joined by a few people from european house. A new improved design was proposed in the meeting for the building, various ideas were shared. Not many people participated in the meeting despite it being open for all was disappointing for a few present there. And the main concern was to build a managing team for the project including with making a plan and acting on it, and also the management of construction and the cost related details. The members of the meeting reached upto a conclusion of planning out the details and then immediately bringing it into action.
Land Purchase Situation
Sigrid, gave a very thought provoking presentation on situation of lands within the Auroville masterplan. As part of the presentation were 3 films, which give details about current and past circumstances regarding land. In one of the films, pioneers of Aurovillians are seen sharing their views and actual circumstance of lands when Auroville was getting ready to begin. The Crust of the presentation was to install a sense of urgency as mentioned, around 100 new private developments have emerged in past few years. These private developments not only plan to cash in on the popularity and good will of the community but also pose as an imminent threat to the lifestyle and basic functioning of Auroville at large. This presentation is an attempt to reach out to the world and stress upon all existing relations of goodwill with Auroville. The time to step up and act is now, what is slowly turning into a crisis can be avoided only if the entire community can come together and put forth an ingenious plan of action. Land will play a decisive role in manifesting the ideal Auroville we all dream of. With Sri Aurobindho and mother looking upon us, we must act diligently.
Greenbelt land use plan
David Stein made a presentation to people of Auroville on his green belt land use plan. This plan is available on auronet and is waiting for an approval from Aurovillians. In near future a general meeting is being organized to understand and take a decision about action to be taken. The key note David Stein emphasised on was, by adopting the land use plan, we can start the process of getting legal status for Auroville buildings. David Stein along with the priority of adopting the plan, highlighted on the situation of increasing salinity in the ground water in Auroville and urged the people of the city to take urgent action to avoid dire situations in future. David said he is available for further comments and feedback , regarding the green belt land use plan.