Karimnagar: Potters face lockdown heat

Karimnagar: No sales due to lockdown made the lives of potters miserable, who are dependent on pottery only for livelihood in Karimnagar district and seeking help from the government to come to their rescue.

Making pots is not a simple process as the makers' hard work start from collecting clay from rural areas, making the clay into pots, burning them, to painting etc.

SRR Degree and PG College lecturer G Rama Krishna said several other countries noticed the benefits of clay pots, which are eco-friendly, and established small and large scale pottery industries and encouraging people. Even in India, a few States recognised pottery as caste-based profession and helping the people involved in pottery.

While many people, who are depended on pottery business, do not want to see the ancient art form dying, some potter, who are facing financial problems, do not wish their children to follow the same profession, he added.

Speaking to The Hans India, Telangana Kummara Sangham State youth president Radharapu Srinivas Rao said the then government of united Andhra Pradesh had issued a GO No1076, which allows people of Kummara caste to collect raw material, clay from government lands without paying any fee to the government. But this GO is not implemented across the State and potters are not allowed to collect clay from the government lands, he alleged.

Srinivas urged the government to save pottery by establishing Kummara Federation and sanction loans on subsidy for purchasing machinery, to allot land for setting up pottery industries and a shelter in Municipal complex for selling pots.

Srinivas also requested the government to sanction Rs 15,000 to each potter family and Rs 3,000 pension per month to Kummara community people as many of them were badly hit with the lockdown.