[Reader-list] Sania below BPL & Married ! - Jai Ho

[Pawan Durani]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8118113.stm

Sania Mirza 'below poverty line'

By Omer Farooq in Hyderabad


Sania Mirza is ranked 85 in world women's tennis
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza lives below the poverty line, if
government records in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh are to
believed.
A special ration card for poor people carrying Mirza's name and
photograph has been recovered during investigations, officials say.
The card issued in Vizianagaram district also mentions a local
20-year-old man as her husband.
Mirza, who is one of the top ranking players, is unmarried.
The 22-year-old player, ranked 85 in the world, crashed out of
Wimbledon in the second round on Wednesday.
The BPL (Below Poverty Line) ration cards entitles beneficiaries to
cheap rice at two rupees (less than 5 cents) a kilogramme, a pension,
housing and free health insurance.
Bogus cards
The fraudulent card carrying Mirza's name and photograph was issued in
the Vepadu village in Vizianagaram state by the revenue department.
Mirza, who is one of India's richest sportspeople, lives in an
up-market neighbourhood in the state capital, Hyderabad.

The one-per-household BPL cards are only supposed to be issued after
married couples personally appear before the authorities and have
their pictures taken together in a single picture frame.
But in this case, the ration card carried two separate pictures of
Mirza and someone called "Mr Narayana" in contravention of the law.
In this case it appears that the holder of the card may have been
single and put the tennis star's name and photograph alongside his -
claiming her to be his wife.
An angry Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy has ordered an
investigation into the matter.
"Find out whether the officer who issued this card in the name of
Sania Mirza is a mad man. How can any one can do it? It is height of
negligence," he told his officers.
The government now says an estimated 4.5 million such bogus ration
cards in the state should be weeded out during the drive to be
launched from next month.
Other bogus cards show photographs of beneficiaries travelling in a
Skoda car and a train.
The drive will also target ration shop dealers who also use the bogus
cards to siphon the cheap rice and sell it at a higher price in open
market.
Nearly 24 million ration cards are in circulation in Andhra Pradesh,
which has only 19 million households. That means that over four
million cards in the state are bogus.