Kachansha (Banka), Aug. 14: A freedom fighter's widow is living from hand to mouth without pension for nearly two years even as the country celebrates its 70th Independence Day with pomp and grandeur.

Sundari Devi, a resident of Kachansha, a backward village in Banka district's Bounsi block around 85km from Bhagalpur and 245km southeast of Patna, is proud of her family; the British hanged two of her brothers-in-law in 1944 and sentenced her husband and another brother-in-law to life in jail. But the septuagenarian woman and her two sons cannot afford medicines or even proper food because they say the local State Bank of India (SBI) branch has not disbursed her pension - which she should get as a freedom fighter's widow - since September 2014.

"I suffer from age-related ailments, but we don't have any medicine or proper food," Sundari said on Sunday at her village which has just one hand pump - which has gone kaput - to cater to 80 families, no road connectivity and poor power availability. "The local branch of State Bank of India has not been paying my pension for the past two years. The system has compelled me and my family to live a hellish life... we are left uncared for and unattended."

She asked: "What message can I give to the next generation when the present system has forced me to forget the sacrifice of my family members?"

Her son Ram Vilas Sahi said: "My mother last drew pension of Rs 1,800 in September 2014. After that SBI has not paid her a single penny."

Sundari's family was associated with the region's noted freedom fighter Mahendra Gope, who founded the Parasuram Dal. An outfit of 250 to 300 armed revolutionaries, the Dal was a "thorn in the flesh" of the British administration in the Bhagalpur region in the 1930s and '40s.

Sundari's brothers-in-law Jago and Lakhi were hanged while her husband Pago Sahi and another of his bothers Rameshwar Sahi were handed life imprisonment. Jago was just 17 years old when the British hanged him.

Pages in KK Dutta's History of Freedom Movement in Bihar and Baldeo Narayan's August Kranti, preserved in the state archives, mention cases lodged against Gope and the four Sahi brothers at Jamda court.

"Jago and Lakhi were hanged inside Bhagalpur Central Jail on July 25, 1944," Sundari told The Telegraph. "My husband was initially lodged in Dumka jail and later brought to Bhagalpur jail. He (Pago) broke down watching his brother Jago walk up to the gallows but Jago scolded him, saying that their sacrifice would win the country's freedom."

Pago, Sundari said, was freed after India became independent. "With the help of some local volunteers he registered his name as a freedom fighter and began getting pension of Rs 200 a month from 1974," she said.

After Pago died in 1992, Sundari became entitled to the pension that stopped in 2014.

"When the local SBI branch refused to pay her pension, we approached the main SBI branch in Banka," said Ram Vilas. "The bank officials said there was some problem with the documents which could be rectified from the offices in Patna or New Delhi. They asked us to pay Rs 25,000 for rectification of the documents."

The bank could not contacted as it is closed for the weekend and Independence Day, but Bounsi block development officer Amar Kumar Mishra said all of Sundari's documents are up to date.

"The government deposited Rs 38,000 at the rate of Rs 2,000 a month towards the pension of Sundari Devi from March to September 2015 and at the revised rate of Rs 3,000 a month from October 2015 till date. We deposited the amount in April," Mishra said.

He added: "All her documents, including life certificate (pension beneficiaries have to submit a document every year to prove they are alive), are updated as well. We don't know why the bank is not paying her the pension. We will look into the matter."

Nilkanth, Sundari's second son, said: "We have not yet mustered courage to visit the bank again after the officials scolded and drove us out of the office in September 2014."

Nilkanth also claimed that the local police demanded Rs 30,000 bribe when the family were about to build a pucca room on their ancestral land. The family still lives in a mud house.

Sundari said the British demolished the original houses in the village in the 1940s.