BANGALORE: Kalpana Chawla , the first Indian woman in space, instills a sense of pride for the average Indian. For the BBMP though, she's just a name to be appended while announcing popular schemes that are conveniently forgotten later.

Over Rs 8 crore in the previous year's budget was earmarked for the welfare of wards represented by women corporators. The scheme was named after Kalpana Chawla. But till date, no funds have been allocated to any of the women corporators.

During the budget discussion meet held at BBMP headquarters on Monday, Shakti Ganapathy Nagar corporator Padmavathi Srinivas took exception to this and said Palike official had shown disrespect to a great lady. "They have no clue on how we make use of the fund and for what works. Part of the previous budget announcement, a fund of Rs 5 lakh had to be given to each woman corporator for ward development. We have not got it so far. This year's budget also has a mention of such funds but what's the use?" she said.

Other women corporators endorsed her when Padmavathi remarked that the soul of Kalpana Chawla must be hovering around BBMP to get this fund allotted for civic works at the ward level.

Opposition party leader in BBMP council MK Gunashekar, also highlighted this drawback during his speech and told the Mayor to be careful and realistic while starting projects in the name of noted personalities.

