New Delhi, Nov. 25: Now we know why the British packed their bags and left.

They couldn't possibly have coped with the ever-increasing number of freedom fighters who are still trooping in, even 65 years after Independence, to claim the benefits the government gives those who gave the best years of their lives for the country.

And they have been coming not in ones and twos, but in thousands.

Home ministry officials say the number of applications for pension under a 1972 scheme for freedom fighters has been rising, with some 9,300 claims coming in last year.

In 2010, the ministry received nearly 7,400 applications, 1,400 more than in the previous year.

"This is astonishing. Many of these applicants were barely 10 years old in 1947," a ministry official told The Telegraph.

"When we asked some of those who had come knocking on the ministry's door for pension why they were so late, they told us they were not aware of the scheme. We later found the (freedom fighter) certificates of most of them were forged."

An official said the policy the ministry followed for accepting claims was the applicant had to be at least 15 years old in 1947.

Sources said they have had to reject thousands of applications. "But what can we do as every year a large number of elderly people come seeking pension," said a senior official of the ministry's freedom fighters division.

From Bengal alone, more than 58,000 applications have been rejected over the past 40 years, sources said.

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Freedom fighters' army