Kolkata, April 08: The West Bengal government has cancelled the allotment of five cottahs of south Kolkata land given to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza in 2007.
Entangled in the controversy surrounding her proposed marriage with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, Sania had been allotted the land at Kasba, in south Kolkata, where she had planned to build a house. The land was allotted in September 2007 when she was in the city for the Sunfeast tournament.
State Minister for Urban Development Ashok Bhattacharya announced on Wednesday that the state government was withdrawing the allotment order for the land as Sania “did not deposit the price of the land on time”.
“When she (Sania) visited Kolkata for the 2007 Sunfeast tournament, she told me that she liked the city and wanted to build a house here. I offered her a plot of land in Kasba at the prevailing market rates,” Bhattacharya said.
He added: “On finding that she had not paid the money, we cancelled the allotment. I cannot remember when we did that, but I think she herself did not want to stay here.”
Government officials, however, do not seem convinced about the cancellation orders.
“This government is not that stickler for rules. There are allegations of allotting land to cricketer Saurav Ganguly in Salt Lake at rates, lower than those prevalent in the market. It is not clear why the allotment was cancelled,” said a highly placed government official.
Sania has been a regular visitor to Kolkata since 2002, when she was here first to participate in a junior tennis tournament organised by former tennis ace Akhtar Ali.
Incidentally, tennis star Mahesh Bhupati, believed to be a blue-eyed boy of the urban development minister, was also given five cottahs of land in the same area. He paid the money and plans to set up a tennis academy and an office of his company, Globo Sport, said a sports administration official.
—–Agencies