The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is likely to frame guidelines for the use of drones / unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by civilians, on Wednesday. Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathy Raju on Wednesday spoke of the the new draft rules. “Time for some exciting action in the sky - we will issue draft regulations for use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) at 4:30 pm today”, the Minister tweeted.
India doesn’t have a well-defined law on UAVs. There are no rules or policies to ensure that they are operated safely. However, their sale is not illegal.
In April 2016, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which comes under the Civil Aviation Ministry, had proposed detailed guidelines for civilian use of drones. Under those guidelines, drone users need to get permission and a unique number for each drone, along with security clearance from the Bureau of Civil Aviation.
All drone operations over 200 feet would require the DGCA’s nod. In September, The Hindu had reported that the Civil Aviation Ministry raised a few objections over the Home Ministry’s bid to frame a new law to regulate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), loosely referred to as drones."The DGCA has told the Home Ministry that licensing and safety of all aircraft — manned or unmanned — was their domain," the report said.
Recently, the Home Ministry circulated a draft law to regulate the low flying objects, for inter-ministerial consultations.
The regulations were circulated more than a year after the DGCA put out draft guidelines for obtaining unique identification numbers for citizens to use drones in the public domain.
