NEW DELHI, Aug 5: The Centre has received various complaints about activities in Auroville, including those relating to land encroachment, drug abuse, cyber crimes circulation of black money and money laundering among others, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.
The complaints have been referred to competent agencies for investigation, it said.
The information was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
According to Auroville Foundation’s website, Auroville is a township in Pondicherry devoted to an “experiment in human unity”.
“Representations and complaints have been received from several quarters, including the residents of Auroville, on various matters related to activities in Auroville.
“These inter-alia include alleged offences such as land encroachment, drug abuse and peddling, cyber crimes, including data theft and data leak through servers based outside India, violation of immigration laws, circulation of black money, money laundering, raising of donations without registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and many more economic offences, besides irregularities in land exchanges,” Majumdar said.
The minister noted that complaints dealing with alleged offences under the Information Technology Act (for cyber crimes) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) have been referred to competent agencies for investigation.
“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,” he added.
According to Auroville foundation, the concept of Auroville – an ideal township devoted to an experiment in human unity – came to the Mother as early as the 1930s.
“In the mid 1960s the concept was developed and put before the Govt. Of India, which gave their backing and took it to the General Assembly of UNESCO. In 1966 UNESCO passed a unanimous resolution commending it as a project of importance to the future of humanity, thereby giving their full encouragement.
“In 1968, some 5,000 people assembled near the banyan tree at the centre of the future township for an inauguration ceremony attended by representatives of 121 nations, including all the States of India. The representatives brought with them some soil from their homeland, to be mixed in a white marble- clad, lotus-shaped urn, now sited at the focal point of the Amphitheatre,” said a note on its website.
The population of the township currently stands at around 3,500 people, of whom approximately one-third are Indians. (PTI)
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