- based on a communication from Land Use Coordination Committee, as
published in the Auroville News # 929, March 9th, 2002
Dear Community,
It has been a long time since L.U.C. has
shared with you a report on its activities. We were quite busy, as
you'll see for yourself while going through this report. For those
unaware of whom we are and what we do here is a short summary:
After L.U.C. was established as a committee
following a decision taken at the Resident's Assembly on July 28, 1999,
it concentrated in achieving two goals:
-
to prepare a Master Plan on behalf of the
Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation and get it ratified by
the relevant authorities.
-
to obtain from the authorities a legal
protective status for the land within the designated Auroville
Universal Township area in order to ensure that development takes
place that is in harmony with the Master Plan.
As of today only the first objective has been
achieved by the Human Resource and Development Ministry approving the
Master Plan on April 12, 2001.
Steps towards legal protective status
Even as the Master Plan was put together,
L.U.C. was already studying all possible scenarios on the legal level to
seek a solution that would be adapted to Auroville specificity and
protect us from indiscriminate development by real estate agents.
In February 28, 2001 our consultant Mr. G.
Dattatri (Formerly Chief urban Planner CMDA) devised a plan of action,
which has been followed, step by step, ever since:
-
printing the Master Plan in large number
and circulate it widely. The first batch of this document is
expected in the coming days.
-
establish contact with departments of the
Tamil Nadu Government dealing with development & land related
issues such as Town & Country Planning, Revenue Department,
Chief Secretariat, etc..
-
pursue the same at the district level,
contacting the Collector, Regional Development Office, etc..
-
pursue the same at the local level,
contacting the Block Development Office, Panchayat, etc..
Meeting with Village Panchayats
An ad hoc group is in place since the
beginning of this year to deal with these issues as matter of urgency.
It consists of members of the Working Committee, Land & Estate
Management, AV Village Action Group, the Auroville Foundation, L.U.C.
and a number of volunteers. This group organised, on February 20th '02,
a meeting at Bharat Nivas where the Presidents, Vice-Presidents,
Panchayat Councilors and Members of Bommaiyarpalayam and Irumbai
Panchayats were invited.
The Master Plan was presented to them,
followed by a question & answer session, which concluded with a call
from the Panchayats for the creation of Auroville-Villages Joint
Development Councils.
We expressed our willingness to help implement
such a plan, and agreed to put our expertise in the field of modern town
planning at the service of our neighbours for the continuation,
betterment and growth of already existing co-development schemes.
Follow-up action
In the weeks to come L.U.C. is preparing an
agenda for follow-up action. Two project proposals for funding of these
Joint Development Councils and their activities have already been drawn
up. A further step to be taken will be to invite the other Panchayats of
our region (Mattur, Kottakuppam, Alankuppam, Rayapuduppakkam,
Thiruchitrambalam, Pattanur and Puthurai) to a presentation of the
Master Plan.
We shall keep you informed as things move on.
Land Use Coordination Committee
March 2, 2002
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