Government asks people to be vigilant about Maoists propaganda

New Delhi, May 6 (ANI):The Union Government on Thursday asked the people to be vigilant about Maoist propaganda as the banned organization is trying to establish contact with non-government organizations (NGO) and intellectuals.

The Union Home Ministry said that such Maoists attempts have come to its notice.

"It has come to the notice of the Government that some Maoist leaders have been directly contacting certain NGOs/intellectuals to propagate their ideology and persuade them to take steps as would provide support to the CPI (Maoist) ideology," the ministry said.

"General public are informed to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of CPI (Maoist) and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda," it added.

In the statement, the ministry said that supporting Maoists groups is a punishable offence under the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA).

"It is brought to the notice of the general public that under Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, any person who commits the offence of supporting such a terrorist organization with inter alia intention to further the activities of such terrorist organizations would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or with fine or with both," the statement said.

The ministry has said that all Maoists groups are terrorists organizations, who are aiming to overthrow system.

"This is being issued in public interest so that the general public are aware that the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and all its formations and front organizations are terrorist organizations whose sole aim is armed overthrow of the Indian State and that they have no place in India's parliamentary democracy," ministry said.

The ministry expressed concern over the Maoists devastation activities in several states.

"CPI (Maoist) continues to kill innocent civilians including tribals in cold blood and destroy crucial infrastructure like roads, culverts, school buildings, gram panchayat buildings, etc. so as to prevent development from reaching these under-developed areas," the statement said. (ANI)