New Delhi, Feb. 12: The Centre has fast-tracked an amendment to the Indian Penal Code to introduce two new sections to punish racial discrimination.

Sections 153-C and 509-A will be introduced in the IPC and the Centre is giving final touches to a draft bill. Sources said the amendment bill would be introduced in the budget session starting this month.

"The amendment is going for cabinet approval soon," a source said.

"The recommendations of the M.P. Bezbaruah committee have been accepted in virtually undiluted form," said a government source.

The suggestions were made by the panel formed last year to look into racial bias against people from Northeast living in metros.

The use of the term "immigrant" in the BJP's vision document for the Delhi polls became a political issue "in Assam's municipal polls and threatened to harm the BJP's ambitions in the region.

It also damaged Narendra Modi's work in the DoNER ministry that he took under his direct supervision.

Besides the legal steps, a slew of measures, including 10,000 scholarships for students from the Northeast, were discussed by minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju here today. People from the Northeast may also enjoy exclusive transit accommodation in metropolitan and other major cities in the near future with the government mulling such a proposal.

Section 153C makes punishable the use of violence on grounds of race or place of origin, on basis of racial behaviour or culture, customs or practices.

It will be a non-bailable offence, which, if proved, could land a person in jail for five years with a fine.

Nido Tania, the Arunachal Pradesh student who was lynched in Lajpat Nagar in January 2014, had faced taunts connected to his origin and physical features.

Another insertion will be Section 509-A that makes even use of a word or gesture besides any act intended to insult a "member of a particular racist group or of any race" punishable.

The oft-used terms like "chinky" or "Chinese" to insult people from the region will attract jail term of three years with a fine.

However, both sections do not make a specific mention of the Northeast, making the law applicable for discrimination against anyone.

This would mean that insulting a person from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh may land people in the Northeast in the same trouble deserved by criminals in the Lajpat Nagar incident last year.

Speaking to The Telegraph today, M.P. Bezbaruah said he was happy that work had begun. He said the Centre should ensure a mechanism for monitoring and implementing the law.

The NEC official, however, said the Northeast should not be painted with the same broad brush.

"The only generalisation you can make about the Northeast is that you cannot make any generalisation. The commonality is that everyone feels isolated and neglected," said Bezbaruah.

On January 2, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had said the government would possibly go ahead with the idea. Today, Rijiju reviewed Bezbaruah's report.

Rijiju said he was happy that the NCERT has initiated a review of CBSE textbooks for Classes VI to XII to include chapters on the Northeast's geography, history and cultural diversity.

He asked officials from the HRD ministry to explore and suggest similar revision in textbooks in other states.

Officials of the University Grants Commission said 10,000 fellowships have been introduced for students of the Northeast, which can be availed of for study anywhere in India.

Over 13,000 applications from the Northeast have been received for the 10,000 scholarships. Undergraduates will receive Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 and post-graduate students from the region would receive Rs 7,000 per month under the scholarships.

"The HRD ministry has a huge budget that can cover the expenses," said a government official today.

Rijiju, however, expressed concern that recruitment of northeastern people in the Delhi Police had not really taken off.

Delhi Police officers told him the rigorous physical and educational qualification is a hurdle and a review is under way to relax the criteria for Northeast-origin people.

An activist, unwilling to be named, said most young people from the region are extremely fit and at least some of the state police forces have proved their mettle in difficult areas like Chhattisgarh.