101-Year-Old INA Veteran Fights for Pension After Being Declared Dead

A 101-year-old freedom fighter from Haryana is seeking a pension he says he has never received, years after the administration mistakenly declared him dead.

Nadar Singh, a resident of Hijrawan Kalan village on the Fatehabad border, approached the Hisar Deputy Commissioner's office on Thursday to seek help in getting his freedom fighter pension sanctioned. He said repeated appeals to the Fatehabad administration over the years had yielded no result, leaving him with no option but to approach the Hisar authorities.

According to his son Swaroop Singh, Nadar Singh served with the Indian National Army and came to India from Pakistan after Partition. The documents establishing his identity and his credentials as a freedom fighter were destroyed in a tent fire in Alwar, and the family has spent decades trying to have his record recognised.

The difficulties were compounded when the Fatehabad administration declared him dead around three years ago. The error was later corrected, but Singh says he is still struggling to have his pension recognised.

The administrative lapse came to the fore again on Independence Day, when a memorial installed in the village carried his name with the word "Late" before it. The centenarian walked to the memorial himself to demonstrate that he was alive.

His family described the episode as an insult to a man who fought for the country's freedom. Karan Singh, a representative of the village sarpanch, said the memorial was installed under an administrative scheme and that the word "Late" had been added to the plaque by mistake. It was removed after the family pointed out the error.

At 101, Nadar Singh's struggle now extends beyond proving that he is alive to securing the recognition and pension he says are owed to him as a freedom fighter.