KERALA-Planter at Large, Labour at Crossroads

thousand workers. The cost to the excheque by way of retrenchment compensation as a statutory obligation is estimated to be Rs 250 crore. This gives an inkling of the scale and dimensions of the wider scheme for the closure or privatisation of industrial units in the public sector and the much talked of 'golden handshake' that is proposed to be offered to workers in public sector enterprises. At the end of the plan period, therefore, the position of the public sector in the industrial structure of the country will be significantly diluted. The role of public sector will then be limited to the provision of infrastructural support to private enterprise in the industrial development process.