NewsGram Staff Writer

Shillong: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, the central government is mulling new laws to punish racial discrimination. Addressing the Mega-Arunachal Tribe Festival-2015 cum cultural exchange program with the north-eastern region on Saturday, he further said, racial discrimination will be introduced as a subject in the education curriculum.

Claiming that racial discrimination is the worst form of crime, Rijiju said, the government has decided to come up with two new sections within the provision of the Indian Penal Code to punish racial discrimination.

"Once this stringent legislation is enacted, any person who abuses on racial lines will be taken to task," Rijiju warned.

Rijiju declared at the event that the central government through the human resource development ministry has decided to include subjects about the north-eastern region in the curriculum from next year. "We are formulating it, probably by next year, right from nursery school up to Class 11 and from degree, MA, M.Phil to Ph.D level, we will be having chapters about the northeast," he assured.

Speaking on Bangladeshi Hindus persecuted on religious grounds in their country, Rijiju assured that the north-eastern states alone will not bear the burden of sheltering them.

"To give them citizenship or not is the prerogative of the government. But it is a humanitarian effort to provide shelter to those people who have come to India especially under religious persecution from Bangladesh," he said, adding, "the north-eastern states alone will not take the burden of providing accommodation to these people, but it must be shared by all the states."

(With inputs from IANS)