Chandigarh, March 8 (IANS) Haryana Monday announced three new awards, including one in the name of astronaut Kalpana Chawla, to honour women in different fields to mark International Women's Day.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the three state awards are being instituted to honour and inspire women in their fields of choice.

Speaking at a state-level function here to honour outstanding women of Haryana, Hooda said the first state level award of Rs.100,000 in cash would be known as Indira Gandhi Mahila Shakti Puraskar.

The second award of Rs.51,000 would be known as Kalpana Chawla Shaurya Puraskar to commemorate the memory of Haryana-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla.

The astronaut, who was the first woman of Indian origin to go into space, belonged to Karnal town in Haryana, 130 km from here. Chawla died with six other astronauts when NASA's space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere February 2003.

The third award has been named after Shanno Devi, the first woman speaker of the Haryana assembly, and it would also carry Rs.51,000 in cash.