By IANS
Hyderabad : The Andhra Pradesh government Wednesday extended by one year the ban on the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its frontal organisations.
The ban on the outfit and its six frontal organisations was to lapse in the second week of this month.
The state cabinet took the decision to extend the ban at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
The banned frontal organisations of CPI (Maoist) are: Radical Youth League, Rythu Coolie Sangham, Radical Students' Union, Singareni Karmika Samakhya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya and All-India Revolutionary Students' Federation.
The government reiterated its stand that it was ready for talks if the Maoists lay down arms. "We are still ready for talks provided they eschew violence," said state Information Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy.
The government had not renewed the ban on the erstwhile Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) People's War Group in July 2004 after the Congress party came to power to pave the way for first-ever direct talks with rebels.
Just ahead of the talks, that outfit merged with the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) of Bihar to form CPI (Maoist). The peace talks, however, collapsed after just one round.
After a lapse of 13 months, the government re-imposed the ban on the radical leftwing party in August 2005 and it was extended last year.
The Maoist violence in the state has claimed more than 6,000 lives during last 38 years.