With a mere 60 of the 613 “missing” Government doctors responding to the State Government’s show-cause notice in newspapers, it’s now clear that these doctors care two hoots for the notice or their government jobs.Concerned over the dismal response to the show-cause notice, the Government has already extended the deadline for the notice from June30 to July 10. And yet, Health and Family Welfare Department sources say the number of doctors responding to the notice by the end of the revised deadline on July 10 can reach a maximum of 75.
There is no word on the whereabouts of the 613 doctors for quite some time. Some of them have gone missing after joining their jobs while others have stopped reporting at their workplaces after serving for some years.Curiously, the Government, which had taken a decision to serve them with show-cause notices, didn’t have their addresses with it. So, the department published advertisements in newspapers on June 1 with the names of the 613 doctors asking them to receive/collect their notices from the department latest by June 10 and reply back to the notice within 20 days, i.e., by June 30. A week after its publication, it was amended and the last date for replying back to the notice was extended to July 10.Many doctors who have responded to the notice have said in their replies that they had sent in their resignation letters to the department, but those have not been accepted by it and have stated that for that reason they remained away from their jobs without informing the authorities. They have requested the department to accept their resignations, the sources revealed.
Some doctors have also said in their replies that they have undertaken higher studies and were, therefore, not reporting for their jobs. Broadly, most of the doctors are not interested to continue with their Government jobs, the sources further said.The sources said the replies to the notice would be reviewed at a high-level meeting on July 13 and services of the doctors who have not responded to the notice would be terminated while steps would be taken in accordance with Rule 15 of Odisha Civil Service Rules, 1962.Presently, there are 4,841 sanctioned doctor posts in the State out of which doctors have been posted in 4,291of them and 613 are missing. On the other hand, the Odisha Medical Service Association (OMSA) has claimed that the number of missing doctors is much higher than 613.