Hindraf urges Minister of Tourism and Culture to invoke his powers to save Vivekananda Ashram from being commercially developed.

KUALA LUMPUR: Non-governmental organisation Hindraf has urged Minister of Tourism and Culture Nazri Abdul Aziz to invoke his powers as minister in charge of heritage under Section 67 of the National Heritage Act 2005, to permanently protect and preserve the Vivekananda Ashram and its surrounding land as a national heritage.

P Waytha Moorthy, as chair of Hindraf, made this request in an open letter to the minister, a copy of which was forwarded to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

In the letter, Waytha reminded Nazri of Malaysias position in the World Heritage Committee saying, It would not auger well for the nation when such a building such as the Swami Vivekananda site is neglected with clear impunity by the trustees as well as the local authorities.

He said this in relation to the two previous objections from the management of the board of trustees when the Commissioner of Heritage attempted to gazette the Vivekananda Ashram as a heritage site.

Saying the public was not aware of what transpired beyond these objections, Waytha said the perception was that the government did not do anything beyond this to protect the site.

Lamenting that the governments inaction had led the board of trustees to convert the land status, Waytha said, We are in the dark whether there was indeed a hearing conducted by the Heritage Commissioner and if so what the outcome of the hearing was.

He added, Based on the media reports, it appears that the Heritage Commissioner did not act beyond giving the two notices in 2008 and 2009.

In the past few weeks, there has been major public uproar over plans by the board of trustees of the Vivekananda Ashram in Brickfields to develop the site as a 23-storey residential building with a six-storey car park while the Ashram itself is to be preserved in its original form.

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Invoke order to save Ashram, minister urged

One of Australia's largest yoga retreats on a NSW Central Coast mountain will be the focus of a national hearing into child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says its 21st public hearing will inquire into the response of the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain to allegations of child sexual abuse by a former spiritual leader in the 1970s and 1980s.

Akhandananda Saraswati was charged, convicted and jailed in the late 1980s for sexually abusing teenage girls living at the Ashram.

The Swami spent 14 months in prison and the convictions were overturned by the High Court appeal in 1991. He died in 1997.

The commission at a hearing in Sydney on December 2 will examine the response of the Ashram to allegations and reports of child sexual abuse made against Swami Saraswati.

It will also look at the systems, policies and procedures for responding to claims or concerns of abuse that have been in place at the Ashram since 1974.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, solicitor for the Ashram, Aaron Kernaghan, said the retreat would ensure it did every thing it could to assist the commission in its case study.

"My clients are leaving no stone unturned in this process and will examine their own conduct and operations over a considerable period of time."

He pointed out that Swami Saraswati did not return to the Ashram after he was released from jail.

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Child abuse inquiry into yoga retreat