Bhubaneswar, Aug 5 (IANS): The Odisha government on Wednesday issued notice to 448 absentee doctors, threatening to take action against them for leaving their place of duty without authorisation for a long period.

The period of absence of the errant doctors ranges from six months to more than a year.

The health and family welfare department, in the notice, asked the doctors to appear personally before an inquiry officer on August 20.

"In the departmental proceedings initiated under rule 15 of the Odisha Civil Services (CC&A) Rules, 1962 against the 448 number of doctors, the date of inquiry is fixed on 20 August 2015 in the health and family welfare department," said a public notice, asking the medical officers to take part in the hearing against them as per rules.

It threatened that if the doctors did not appear before the inquiry officer, "action as deemed proper will be taken ex-parte", the notice said.

Earlier, Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak had warned of initiating action against the doctors who are not responding to the public notice.

The state government has put up the notice for the second time.

Unable to locate as many as 613 absentee doctors across the state, the Odisha government on June 1 had served notices to them for leaving their place of duty without authorisation for a long period.

However, only 89 of them responded to the government in the stipulated one month date.