Hyderabad: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, 139 drones were deployed for monitoring irregularities during the Jubilee Hills bypoll on Tuesday, November 11. However, six drones were reportedly damaged after being caught in kite manja.
According to reports, the drones were purposefully struck down by people using kites. Two drones each were struck down in Rahmatnagar and Karmika Nagar, while one was brought down in Madhuranagar and Shaikpet.
However, speaking to Saisat.com, Madhura Nagar police denied this claim and said that the drones were merely caught up in manja and that no case has been registered against any perpetrators.
Each of the drones valued at Rs 2.5 lakh was operated by licensed drone pilots from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The feed transmitted from the cameras was being monitored in real time by officials at the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC).
Jubilee Hills by-election
The Jubilee Hills by-election concluded at 6:00 pm on November 11 with a voter turnout of 48.49 per cent. A total of 1,94,631 votes were polled, with males contributing 99,771 votes and females contributing 94,855 votes. Five votes were marked as ‘others.’
The counting of the votes is scheduled for November 14. Exit polls indicate a close fight between the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Congress.
BRS has fielded Maganti Sunitha as their candidate, while Congress has fielded Naveen Yadav.
The election was necessitated after BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath passed away in June this year.
| Posted by Saleha Fatima | 
