'Odisha govt turned a blind eye to Pintu Nanda'

Actor and secretary of Odisha Cine Artistes' Association, Sritam Das accused the Naveen Patnaik-led government of abandoning Ollywood actor Pintu Nanda, who died due to liver-related ailments on Wednesday night.

Launching a scathing attack, Das said, “Odisha govt turned a blind eye to Pintu Nanda. If it had intervened, Pintu would not have died an untimely death.”

“The State government is roping in artistes from outside and spending crores of rupees for them. But, the government is ignoring the Odia cine artistes,” Das rued.

“There is a hype that CM Naveen does not meet anyone. However, it is not true. Actors, sportspersons and other influential people are meeting the CM regularly and he is gifting t-shirts to them. But unfortunately, CM Naveen never spoke to the Odia artiste association.”

“Moreover, despite our pressing demands, the Odisha government did not create a welfare fund for us. If the welfare fund would have been in place, treatment expenses could have been met from the interest of the corpus. Surprisingly, there is no allocation or mention of the Odia cine industry in the Budget too,” the actor-turned-politician said.

Meanwhile, no comments have received from the government in this regard.

On Wednesday night, Ollywood actor Pintu Nanda passed away during treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad after a prolonged battle with liver cirrhosis.

Nanda was diagnosed with 'Acute On Chronic Liver Failure' and was advised to undergo liver transplantation (Cadaver).

(Reported by Prabhat Bisoi, OTV)