The room rent of Taj Palace is Rs 2.3 lakhs per night and it was taken during the peak of Covid in Ganjam when maximum deaths were happening!
Nero fiddled while Rome burned! This phrase perfectly fits with Pradeep Panigrahi, the three-time MLA from Gopalpur constituency in Ganjam district.
Like the Roman Emperor, Pradeep Panigrahi, the peoples’ representative, was living a lavish life with private chartered flights and allegedly staying in five star hotels when the people of Ganjam were struggling for their livelihood during pandemic.
It is nothing less than cheating poor and innocent people when they needed their representative and the leader the most during the difficult times of Covid-19 pandemic.
Ganjam was having an extended lockdown affecting the livelihoods of people. It was cut off from the outside state as Ganjam was seen as a Hotspot and people were suffering because of this. Covid situation was at its peak both in rural and urban Ganjam. Teams of officers were deputed to tackle a war like situation. Covid warriors were fighting day and night during the peak of the pandemic in the district and many of them also lost their precious lives in the fight.
Administration was overwhelmed by the situation with senior officers losing lives. Government was mobilizing beds, ICUs and ventilators to manage the situation in Ganjam. Aditya Ashwini hospital was put up overnight. For a common man in Ganjam it was a life and death situation.
Sarpanches and Anganwadi workers and SHG women were risking their lives to fight COVID. It is during this situation, one can expect the peoples’ representatives to be with people and show their commitment and compassion. Pradeep Panigrahi was flying in chartered flights when common people were walking on the roads. He was allegedly staying in the best of the five star hotels when people were suffering for food. He was allegedly cheating people of his own constituency and taking bribe in the name of giving jobs in this situation.
Pradeep Panigrahi along with Pathak family travelled lavishly in chartered flights and led an extravagant life with stay in Hotel Taj Mumbai in August, 2020 while the people of Ganjam were suffering the worst health crisis of Covid-19 and a sharp spike in infections and related deaths, according to sources.
In Mumbai, he along with Pathak family, allegedly spent about Rs. 84 lakhs at Hotel Taj, Mumbai. Similarly, they spent lakhs of rupees at the Taj Palace Hotel, Delhi as well, sources added. Such insensitive and negligent behaviour of a public representative and MLA Pradeep Panigrahi is shameful and exposes his anti-people activities.
While the State government, Ganjam district administration and other public representatives toiled day and night in Ganjam during August, 2020 to combat the COVID pandemic, Pradeep Panigrahi along with Pathak family enjoyed lavish lifestyle and abdicated his role as a people’s representative. This is nothing but only anti-people activity of Pradeep Panigrahi.