Click to play videoThiruvnathapuram: It's an ultimatum from a state government sick of absentee doctors.
Over 25 per cent of the country's chikungunya cases this year came from Kerala, and the government is now pulling up the doctors who were missing when their state needed them most.
The Kerala Health Department has sent showcause notices through the media asking 140 absconding government doctors to report to work in 15 days, or face punitive action.
Says Kerala Health Secretary, Vishwas Mehta, "We are now going ahead with very strict measures like terminating their service within the next 15 days if they don't report back to work. Either you are with us or you are not with us."
Twenty-one of the doctors in the list were posted in the districts worst affected by chikungunya and other fevers this year.
The government, which had to even call in the Army when chikungunya was at its peak, says more than 500 doctors have been absent from work for long periods.
Nobody knows where many of them have gone, and as long as they're on the rolls, they can't be replaced by fresh appointees. Doctors say it's not just the money that's a temptation.
Says Srijith N Kumar of the Indian Medical Association, "The pay is a huge factor. But more than that it's the lack of research facilities and opportunities to grow that's forcing the young doctor to jump from government service to the private sector."
For the doctors of Kerala , it's a clear case of greener pastures beckoning. But for a state that's reeling under the pressure of a number of diseases, this is undoubtedly a bold step by the state government to change the system.
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