Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched a first ever ‘Terracotta Grinder’ at Sewapuri in Varanasi. This machine will grind the wasted and broken pottery items for re-using in pottery-making.KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said that earlier the wasted pottery items were grinded in normal khal-musal (mortar and pestle) and its fine powder was mixed with the normal clay. Mixing this powder in stipulated ratio to normal clay makes the resulting pottery items stronger. This Terracotta grinder will make grinding of wasted pottery items faster than the traditional mortar and pestle. It will lessen the cost of production, and will also help in solving the problem of shortage of clays. He said the cost of one tractor trolley of clay is Rs 2,600 in the Varanasi area. By mixing 20 percent of this wasted terracotta powder, the potter will make a saving of at least Rs 520. This will also create more job opportunities in the villages. The grinder was designed by KVIC Chairman, and fabricated by a Rajkot-based engineering unit.
On this occasion, the KVIC Chairman also distributed 200 Electric Potter Wheels and other pottery machines among the villagers. This will not only create 900 new jobs, but will also meet the growing demand for terracotta products at Varanasi railway station following a direction by the Ministry of Railways to Zonal Railways and IRCTC to take urgent necessary action to ensure use of locally produced, environment friendly terracotta products like Kulhad, glasses and plates for serving passengers through all static catering units at Varanasi and Raibareilly railway stations.This machine will be a boon for potters as Union Minister of MSME Shri Nitin Gadkari has proposed to introduce kulhads and other terracotta products at 400 prominent railway stations. The proposal is under active consideration of the Railways. KVIC, as part of its commitment to Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, had also started manufacturing of plastic-mixed handmade paper at Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute (KNHPI), a KVIC unit in Jaipur under its project REPLAN (REducing PLAstic in Nature). In this project, the waste plastic is collected, cleaned, chopped, beaten and treated for softness. After that, it is mixed with the paper raw material i.e. cotton rags pulp in a ratio of 80 % (pulp) and 20% (plastic waste). The institute has sold over six lakh handmade plastic mixed carry bags since September 2018.