Naveen made over 60 official visits in Odisha, Pandian over 90 visits in 5 years: Minister

Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik went on official visit to different places in the state more than 60 times while former 5T secretary VK Pandian made more than 90 visits in and outside the state in the last five years. This was stated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling in a reply to an unstarred question of Nilamadhav Hikaka in the Assembly on Monday.

Hikaka had sought to know which areas in the state were visited by Naveen and Pandian during the last five years and the expenditure incurred towards the visits. He also asked the purpose of the visits and the source of expenditure.

The Minister submitted a detailed list of the visits of the former chief minister and former 5T secretary. He cited the purpose of their visits was official while the expenditure was met from the state exchequer.

As per the list, Naveen visited to different places of the state as many as 65 times from 2019 to 2024. He went to 3 places in 2019, 8 in 2020, 25 in 2021, 10 in 2022 and 19 in 2023.

Similarly, Pandian visited 5 places in the state in 2019, 12 places in 2020, 11 in 2023 and 40 in 2024. He also visited New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad 10 times in 2022, the Minister said as per the list.