About 170 of the 200 odd remaining employees of the beleaguered Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (KSDP), Aalappuzha, has opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The employees at the same time are also on a stir path for the alleged move of the management to increase perks of the managers while the company is heading for a complete closure.

According to informed sources, the board meeting of the company, held last week, decided to offer promotion and higher benefits to many of its senior managers. This was aimed to help the managerial cadre professionals leave the company with maximum benefits, as more than 90 per cent of them had applied for the VRS scheme, which ended on November 23, 2003. While a maximum ceiling of Rs. Five lakhs was applicable for the factory workers opting the VRS route, the scheme was designed to offer unlimited benefits to the managerial cadre, alleged the sources.

Based on a technical report from the management that the company was beyond redemption, the Kerala Government had sanctioned Rs.10 crore to implement Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) at KSDPL, two months ago.

The employees of the factory under the banner of various trade unions led by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), protested in front of the Finance Manager. In an ensuing discussion between the management and the employee representatives, the management agreed to disburse at least one-month salary to the employees within 10 days, said sources.

It is to be noted that the company has not paid its workers for the last seven months. KSDPL now has only about 200 employees, out of over 420 during its heydays, working in its formulation and Vitamin A divisions apart from the administrative staff. More than 200 employees have either left the company or opted for deputation to join other Government departments in the last one-year. About 50 employees of the defunct Vitamin A plant, which had about 120 employees, had opted for deputation to work with the Kerala State Beverages Corporation's liquor retail outlets during September, this year.

Sources said production has completely stopped at the factory, and the raw materials worth several lakhs of rupees lying with the factory would expire if not utilized immediately. Recently, the company had disposed off five big underground storage tanks of the Vitamin A plant worth over Rs.10 lakhs as scrap. KSDPL's Vitamin A plant, the only one of its kind in the country in the public sector, is estimated to have plant and machinery worth over Rs.100 crore.