The Karimnagar Commissionerate of Police, who set a trend by using the drones for the first time in the district to check the consumption of liquor from October 2017, had used drones to check illegal sand mining, night patrolling, surveillance of rallies and meetings, among others.
Now, the drones have come in handy for the effective implementation of the lockdown and enforce curfew in all lanes and bylanes in various parts of the town.
The drones have come handy especially in the surveillance of the ‘Red Zone’ covering three municipal divisions in the town to check any intrusion by any new person into the zone or persons from the zone breaking the security cordon and going out. Mukarampura and Kashmirgadda areas in the town were demarcated Red Zone as a group of 10 Indonesian preachers, who tested COVID-19 positive, had stayed there and closely interacted with the residents of the locality. Further, a resident of the town who had played host to the visitors and moved closely with them had also tested positive for the coronavirus.
The district administration had notified the area as Red Zone and barricaded all the roads around it and deployed police forces to enforce the isolation of the residents. However, the residents of the are were violating the police restrictions and assembling in groups in various localities in the lanes and bylanes. The police, who were posted at the barricades, were unable to notice what’s happening inside the localities.
To improve the effective monitoring of the movement of residents and enforce the lockdown that was imposed to break the spread of the coronavirus, the police deployed drone cameras for surveillance in entire town.
Talking to The Hindu on Saturday, Commissioner of Police VB Kamalasan Reddy said that they were using drones because they could not man lanes and bylanes to maintain close surveillance. “With the drone camera surveillance, we are covering each and every corner of the town and noticing the violations of lockdown and taking action accordingly,” he stated.
“We have three drone cameras and deployed them for the surveillance in the morning and night times also for effective implementation of lockdown and curfew,” he added.
“Our aim is only to help break the chain of spread of the coronavirus by enforcing the lockdown and curfew in Karimnagar town and see that the people are safe,” the Police Commissioner added.
The police had formed ‘Drone patrolling team’, which are working round-the-clock for effective implementation of lockdown during the daytime and curfew in the night. The drone patrolling team after noticing a group of people in various lanes and bylanes were alerting the concerned police, who were rushing to the spot and dispersing the mob, if required seizing their vehicles and sensitising them on the importance of isolation.
