All India Kulalar Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Kulalar Unorganised Brick Kiln Workers Welfare Association have urged the State government to set up a terracotta park for improving the livelihood of potters.
In a resolution adopted at a State conference here on Sunday, the associations urged the government to offer training for artisans engaged in pottery making and create work sheds in all districts.
The State government should implement the Government Order issued in 1977 which stipulated that specific areas be earmarked for potters for lifting silt and prohibited trespassing into these reserved areas.
The G.O. remains a dead letter, especially after local bodies started planting saplings on poramboke lands, the resolution said. Encroachers on temple lands donated for the welfare of potters should be evicted immediately, another resolution said.
Another resolution urged the Centre to include traditional potters in scheduled tribe list.
The conference, through a resolution, urged the State government to revive the potters’ welfare board and to appoint a chairman from the potter community.
The conference adopted a resolution urging the State government to promote the use of pottery items in government departments, particularly water pots. Forest Department should utilise only pots and not polythene for raising saplings.
V.Ponraj, scientific advisor to the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who inaugurated an exhibition organised as part of the conference, said that problems faced by the potters and brick kiln workers due to the ban on taking silt from tanks would be brought to the notice of the State government for suitable action.
Traditional brick kilns were losing business and the State government should train kiln workers on modular construction technology.
