‘Pak using drones to drop explosives’

Jammu, Nov 27 (PTI):
Unlike Pakistan which uses drones to drop weapons and further terrorism in Indian territory, India uses its drones to serve humanity, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday at the launch of operations of an unmanned aeriel vehicle to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to areas along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.
The indigenously built medium-class multicopter unmanned ariel vehicle (UAV) took off from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Complex here and successfully delivered 50 vials of COVID-19 vaccines along with syringes to a public health centre in Jammu’s Marh area near the India-Pakistan border.
“Pakistan is using drones to drop explosives to cause harm to human life and further terrorism, but our drone will act as a carrier of ‘Sanjeevani Boti’ for the betterment of humanity and is going with a message of peace,” Singh, who is Union minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office, said.
He said health workers engaged in COVID-19 vaccination are facing problems in reaching families in remote and mountainous regions, and difficult terrains of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere.
The use of this type of drones will be of great help and also aid in fulfilling the government’s resolve of 100 per cent vaccination, Singh said.
The GPS-guided beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) Octacopter UAV has been developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and has a range of 55 kilometres, an official said, adding that it can carry a payload of 20 kilograms.
The UAV is integrated with a powerful on board embedded computer and latest generation sensors for versatile applications like agricultural pesticide spraying, crop monitoring, mining survey and magnetic geo-survey mapping, he said.
On restrictions on use of drones in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said there is no need to be concerned as all necessary security measures have been taken and permissions sought from authorities concerned.