News & Notes 886:Remarks on TDC Office Order on July 15th 2021
Remarks on TDC Office Order of July 15th 2021 from Entity::Auroville Council
Dear Auroville Community, in response to the prevalent discord in our community and several inconsistencies in our governance over the past years, we would like to share our understanding of the situation which has led to the recent issuing of Office Order on July 15th 2021 for the Entity::ATDC.
The observations begin with the Standing Order No 6/2011 dated 1st May 2011 (Constitution of the Auroville Town Development Council) and culminate with the Office Order No.491 dated 15th July 2021 (Re-constitution of the Auroville Town Development Council).
| Standing Order No. 6/2011 1st May 2011 Constitution of the ATDC  PDF (6 pages) |
Office Order No. 491 15th July 2021 Re-constitution of the ATDC  PDF (2 pages) |
1) The Standing Order 2011 was used when issuing the new Office Order 2021, this happened while there was no Governing Board (GB) to recommend its issuing or to approve the candidates.
2) The Under Secretary issued the Office Order 2021 on behalf of the Secretary in the absence of the Governing Board. It is to be seen under which points of the Foundation Act 1988 or the Rules and Regulations 1997 that this action is valid.
3) The revised Standing Order 2019, which ought to supersede the 2011 Standing Order, was not used to issue the Office Order 2021. The revised Standing Order 2019 did not take into account the 2017 RA ratified TDC restructuring. As far as we are aware the WCom and/or RA were not consulted.
The revised Standing Order 2019 which placed a lot of decision-making power with the GB did not take into account the importance of the role of the RA, as one of the 3 entities of the Foundation named in the Act.
| RA ratified TDC restructuring, 2017 | Standing Order No. 1/2019 (Revised Standing Order No. 6/2011) Constitution of the ATDC | ||
Planning Principles PDF (3 pages) |
Organization PDF (5 pages) |
Terms of Reference PDF (24 pages) |
 PDF (5 pages) |
4) The GB had stated, as per the ‘55th minutes of the GB’, that the 2017 Residents Assembly approved TDC restructuring and the revised Standing Order 2019 should be harmonized, so far this has not been done.
5) The 2017 RA approved TDC restructuring did not take into account the Standing Order 2011 where a clear point of accountability (financial, legal, and institutional) needed to be placed in order to create the necessary platform to receive financial and other support from the Central and State Governments.
6) The recommendations of the WC to the Under Secretary for issuing the 2021 office order were not entirely heeded.
7) There were some clear observations (https://auroville.org.in/article/86077) made by the WCom after the Office Order 2021 was issued by the Under Secretary. These observations have so far not received a response.
After having initially signed the observations, two members of the WCom decided that they did not want their names to be attached in the formal observations.
We believe that the lack of clarity through overlapping policies and orders, and the ambiguity surrounding the roles of the statutory bodies of the Auroville Foundation and their relation to each other and the community is very unfortunate.
We look forward to addressing all of this in a spirit of goodwill and understanding towards all.
Our first recommendation is that the RA-approved TDC restructuring of 2017 and the Standing Order of 2019 are harmonised at the earliest. As there is no GB we suggest that WCom draft a preliminary document to be used awaiting the appointment of the GB.
At Her service,
For the Auroville Council,
Balaji, Claudine, Ganesh K. Meenal, Sai Suresh, Suryan, Shivaya and Shiva