RA-appointed Working Group members moved onto bridging maintenances
While the daily management of Auroville is left to the Residents’ Assembly as per the Auroville Foundation Act, the Secretary’s office continues its attempts to micromanage the affairs of the residents. On the 30th September, Sathyanarayan, the Auroville Foundation Office Accounts Officer, instructed the Financial Service to move RA-appointed Working Groups members onto a 3-month Bridging Maintenance. A bridging maintenance is usually provided by the BCC (Budget City Service) to ensure that Aurovilians have an intermediary period in order to find another place of work. This means that their currently allocated maintenances are discontinued and they need to find another source of income.
Names on the list include members from the RA WCom, the RA FAMC and the RA BCC. On September 21st, RA BCC members received a communication from the Secretary’s office ‘BCC’ that they were being shifted to Bridging Maintenances. The 30th September list included an additional BCC Office member.
A number of the members of the RA Working Groups are working full time for the RA and are dependent on their maintenance to live. As such, in the absence of available funding, they may be faced with difficult choices as to whether they can continue with their work.