Directions on drone use in mines ignored, state pulled up

Describing the State’s delay as ‘painful’, a division bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Justice S Vaidyanathan also set aside the submission made by the Additional Advocate General that the government had already introduced an advanced technology developed by the Indian Bureau of Mines called Mining Tenement System (MTS). The counsel had argued that MTS is more compatible for the purpose than the drone technology.

The court further noted that the February 7, 2017 order was passed after accepting the contention of the petitioner V B R Menon that the drone technology is a must. It said that the ‘state authorities cannot now be permitted to take a different stand to contend that the proposed Mining Tenement System (MTS) in the place of drone technology would be introduced for survey of the illegal mining operations’.

It added that, “Though both MTS and drone technology shall operate simultaneously, in that process, the implementation of Drone Technology cannot be dispensed with at any point of time.”

The court observed that while the use of MTS will help the government in only detecting the illegal mining activities, use of drone technology will record the exact quantum of minerals being quarried. It concluded by saying that if the State does not use drone technology as directed, the petitioner can take the ‘recourse of law’ for action to be initiated.

The petitioner had submitted that drones can be used to monitor illegal mining activities and to track illegal truck movements.