Firdaus Begum, mother of three children and widow of Grenadier Abid Khan, a resident of Pali village in Hardoi district, severed ties with her in-laws, penniless and ailing parents of the martyr, once she received the cheque of Rs 10 lakh from the State Government.

"I do not live with my in-laws and have put the money in three fixed deposits in the names of my children," she says.

Just three houses away, Gaffar Khan weeps uncontrollably at the mention of his son's name. "We have lost our son and now the daughter-in-law," he says. He has not got a single paisa from the compensation.

"We all are persuading Firdaus to live with her in-laws so that the moneycould remain in the house. But it's not working," says community leader Abdul Sattar Khan.

The struggle is tougher for Shiv Kumari, widow of Grenadier Ram Nihore Yadav of Sonari village in Sultanpur. She has sought legal help to get the money received as assistance after her husband's martyrdom in Kargil.

Her in-laws have come out with a bizarre claim that she is not Ram Nihore's wife and even produced a woman in the court to prove that she "is the real wife" and also the true claimant of the "money".