Govt may allow private air traffic controllers to manage drones in lower airspace
Bengaluru, Feb 3: The government is considering allowing air traffic controllers, operated by private entities, to manage drone operations in the Indian airspace below 1,000 feet, said a senior Civil Aviation Ministry official on Wednesday.
"The drone ATC (air traffic controller) will be called UTM (unmanned traffic management) and it will collaborate with the manned traffic management, which is being handled currently as a sovereign function by the Airports Authority of India (AAI)," said Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The AAI, which works under the ministry, manages all manned aircraft operations in the Indian airspace. A passenger aircraft generally flies at a height of around 30,000 feet.
"The airspace below 1,000 feet is lower airspace and it would be the main playground of drones. For that, we may have a system of private ATCs, which would be managed by private operators," Dubey said at a session organised by industry body FICCI at Aero India 2021.
"It could be a government agency or a private agency, it is something that would evolve," he added.
The AAI cannot handle drones because they would be flying at 5 feet to take care of crops to about 1,000 feet in the airspace, Dubey mentioned.
Drone technology is moving way faster than the regulations so we have decided that we need to start a parallel activity, he said.
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'ED must show order copy', AAP rejects claims of sanction to prosecute Kejriwal
New Delhi, Dec 21: Aam Aadmi Party leaders in Delhi, including Chief Minister Atishi, on Saturday rejected claims that Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate to prosecute party supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged excise policy scam.
While no formal reaction was immediately available from the lieutenant governor's (LG) office on the issue, sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it is yet to receive the sanction to prosecute Kejriwal in the excise policy case linked to money laundering.
"Reports of ED getting prosecution sanction (against Kejriwal) are false. Had the LG granted prosecution sanction, why isn't the ED showing its copy," senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who was also an accused in the excise policy case, asked in a statement.
This is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the "disrespect" shown by the BJP to Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sisodia alleged.
Atishi claimed reports about LG granting prosecution sanction are being spread solely to "mislead people and divert attention from real issues".
Stating that the BJP should stop such "conspiracies", the chief minister said in a post on X, "If the LG has granted prosecution sanction against Arvind Kejriwal, why does the ED have a problem in making its copy public?"
Sanjay Singh, AAP Rajya Sabha MP and also an accused in the excise policy case, claimed "LG V K Saxena has not granted any prosecution sanction", adding that the ED should make public if it has received any letter on this.
Meanwhile, BJP MP from New Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj, hit back at AAP claiming its leaders were "panicked" with the thought of Kejriwal's prosecution.
"If the lieutenant governor grants permission to prosecute Kejriwal, corruption in the AAP government will become the main political issue, which 'Team Kejriwal' does not want before the (Assembly) elections," she said in a statement.
"The truth is that cases against Kejriwal are already registered, and 'Team Kejriwal' is aware that this approval could expedite the ongoing cases against him, possibly leading to jail term for him in the near future," she claimed..
In March this year, the ED arrested then Chief Minister Kejriwal in connection with the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy (2021-22). He was released from prison on September 13 after the Supreme Court granted him bail.
