Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan made a statement on Sunday regarding the issue, shortly after state Commerce and Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhushan Jena stated that the government is investigating the extensive use of helicopters by the former bureaucrat-turned-politician.
“There has been a misuse of funds from the state exchequer. There is a need for an investigation into the helicopter travel expenses of Pandian,” Harichandan said.
The controversial bureaucrat, who allegedly dabbled in political management of the BJD while serving as a Secretary-rank officer, reportedly covered 400 locations by helicopter. With the Tamil Nadu-born former bureaucrat being a blue-eyed boy of former CM Naveen Patnaik and projected as the second-in-command of the regional party after his plunge into politics, the government had to foot the bills of Pandian’s travel expenses.
An officer of Secretary rank is not entitled to helicopter rides of this nature. The government will investigate who authorised these expenses and instructed the construction of the helipad at government cost, Harichandan said.
The use of helicopters for grievance redressal at the ground level by the former bureaucrat raised eyebrows, with many questioning the propriety of such a flagrant misuse of public money by an individual closely bonded with and having proximity to the former Chief Minister.
As the former CM’s grievance cell functioned only on paper, Naveen Patnaik’s then-private secretary and former 5T Chairman VK Pandian took on the role of addressing grievances on behalf of the former CM.
The 2000-batch IAS officer Pandian, a Tamilian groomed by Patnaik as his political successor, grabbed the opportunity to undertake chopper-hopping tours across the length and breadth of the state, spending crores from the state exchequer. The extent of this extravagance is evident from the fact that he covered almost all districts, including instances of chartered flights for long distances. Although Pandian claimed to have addressed 45,536 grievance petitions after touring 190 places, the efforts largely proved rhetorical, with many issues remaining unsettled. The move backfired and did more damage than good to the credibility of the previous government. The electoral debacle that the regional party suffered in the 2024 polls bore testimony to it.