Restrictions may be imposed on storage, sale, possession of drones in Srinagar district

The Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar recommended that reasonable restrictions may be imposed on the storage, sale or possession, use and transport of drones in Srinagar district.

"The decentralised airspace access has to be regulated in view of recent episodes of misuse of drones posing threat to security infrastructure as reported by the media or other reliable sources," reads an order issued by J-K government.

"The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has provided draft guidelines or standard operating protocol to regulate the use of drones in terms of weight classification, generation of Unique Identification Number, height, altitude restrictions, speed restriction, enforcement / panel action etc.," it added.

"People who already having the drone cameras and similar kind of unmanned aerial vehicles in their possession shall ground the same in the local police station under proper receipt", Mohammad Aijaz, IAS, District Magistrate of Srinagar said.

He further said that government departments using drones for mapping, surveys, and surveillance in Agricultural, environment conservation and disaster mitigationsector shall infrom the local police station befor undertaking any such activities in public interest.