“Awaiting
further orders from the Court to restart enquiry”
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said the territorial
administration will soon take a decision on the need for appointing a
government nominee to look after the administration of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Replying to a calling attention in the Assembly
related to some incidents, including financial mismanagement of Ashram’s trust
funds, illegal sale and lease of its properties, he said that several petitions
against the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram were received from the public and
inmates/devotees of the Ashram.
All petitions were forwarded to the Deputy Collector
(Revenue), North, for conducting enquiry and report.
However, the enquiry had to be withheld following the
interim stay granted by the High Court based on a writ petition by the Trustees
of Ashram in October 2012. Counter affidavit had been filed to vacate the
order. “The government is awaiting further orders from the court to restart the
enquiry,” the Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, an interim reply (about the complaints) has
been sent to the Additional Secretary to the Government (Home) on April 16 and
the Ministry of Home Affairs on April 19, 2013.
“A decision on appointing officers to look after
Ashram’s administration will be taken in consultation with the Law Department,”
Mr. Rangasamy said.
Earlier, A. Anbazhagan (AIADMK), who moved the calling
attention along with Ashok Anand and P.R. Siva (AINRC), said that hundreds of
devotees, who donated their properties to the Ashram, had become inmates.
However, many inmates, in the recent past, had
levelled allegations of harassment and illegal sale or lease of properties
worth several crores.
But, the Ashram’s administrators had been wilfully
preventing the officials from conducting any enquiry, he charged.
Mr. Anand said the Ashram was a public charitable
trust, answerable to the government and people, and therefore an IAS ranked
official should be posted as the administrator to run the Ashram.
V.M.C. Sivakumar (Independent) said that the government
must demonstrate that the ashram functionaries were equal before the rule of
law.
Mikes switched off
However, K. Laxmi Narayanan (Congress) said that it
was not wise to make reckless accusations against the world famous ashram when
it was the focal point of tourist attraction. When other Congress members stood
up to speak on the subject, the Speaker refused to entertain them.
The mikes were also switched off. Protesting, the
Congress members led by the Opposition Leader V. Vaithilingam staged a walkout.
Awaiting further orders from the Court to restart
enquiry, the Puducherry Chief Minister told the Assembly
The link for The Hindu dt 27.7.2013 referred above has the following:
ReplyDelete
"The article you are looking for is no longer available in this website."
I WAS WONDERING WHETHER ANY VIRUS MANAGED TO DELETE IT.
HENCE I THOUGHT IT FIT TO TYPE OUT( instead of giving the link address)THE COVERAGE IN "THE TIMES OF INDIA" dt 27 July 2013,(page 8, column 3) WHICH IS GIVEN BELOW.
"Govt may name administrators for Pondy ashram
Puducherry:
The Puducherry government will decide on appointing administratorsto oversee the functioning of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust after consulting the law department, chief minister N Rangasamy told the legislative assembly on Saturday
Rangasamy while replying to a call attention motion tabled by a section of MLAs, said the government has been taking steps to vacate an interim stay granted by the Madras high court on the inquiry by deputy collector into the allegations relating to sexual harassment of womeninmates,financial mismanagement and illegal sale and lease of properties against the trust.
The additional government pleader for Puducherry filed a counter affidavit on behalf of deputy collector.The government has also sent a report to the Union home ministry in April this year".
The Hindu internet link seems to have been deleted after we downloaded the text from the site http://www.thehindu.com. The Trustees are surely behind this deletion. The Hindu's credibility is at stake, it should come out with an explanation.
ReplyDeleteI did have a sneaking suspicion when I referred to the virus,regarding the site of The Hindu. Anyway the detailed report of The Hindu is in this site, and together with the text reproduced from another paper( Times of India)the matter is in public domain.
ReplyDeleteMay be the matter should be brought to the notice of The Hindu, so that such factual reporting is not distorted or hidden from public view.