Manipur Police rap filmmakers for using drones, city safety concerns

IMPHAL: Invoking a public notice issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in 2014, Manipur Police announced they would crack down on the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones in the strife-torn state.
Filmmakers often use such machines to capture aerial shots. Police, however, said the makers had never obtained permission from any government agency before using drones.
Inspector general of police (Zone I) Clay Kongsai on Wednesday said the DGCA had issued a notice on October 7, 2014, preventing the use of drones for civilian purposes till further orders."We will take action against anyone using drones/UAS without taking approval from the authorities," Khongsai said. He also distributed copies of the notice to district SPs.
The notice said civil operation of UAS or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) would require the approval of the air navigation service provider, Union defence and home ministries and other concerned security agencies, besides DGCA.
"Though drones can be used for many civilian applications, they also pose a security threat," the public notice said. "The airspace over cities in India has a high density of manned aircraft traffic. Due to lack of regulation, operating procedures/standards and uncertainty of technology, UAS might cause air collisions and accidents," the notice added.
It also said the DGCA would formulate regulations for the use of drones in Indian civil airspace. "Till then, no non-government agency, organization, or individual will launch a UAS in Indian civil airspace for any purpose whatsoever," it added.
On the other hand, filmmakers who used drones said they had not obtained any permission from any government agency. "Drones are quite new to Manipur and we used them in capturing aerial view of subjects in our films. We used them at heights much lower than that of flight routes," a noted director said. "Since police have issued strictures, we will follow rules from now," he added.