Chandigarh, Apr 4 (PTI) The Haryana government is using drones for surveying infrastructure projects, monitoring agriculture and horticulture crops, and surveillance of sensitive areas for security purposes, a senior official said on Tuesday.

A government-owned body, Drone Imaging and Information Service of Haryana Ltd (DRIISHYA), provides innovative, flexible, and cost-effective drone-based geographical information solutions to the state government.

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While inaugurating an event here, Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal also said that the Centre has emphasized the need of utilizing drones and capture images to understand the crops yield and crops damage due to inclement weather, so that compensation can be given to farmers accordingly.

The Chief Secretary said that DRIISHYA will impart drone pilot training to the youth in the state which would generate employment opportunities for them.

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He said the state government is also using drones to curb illegal mining activities and ensure sustainable mining practices in the state.

The government has been using drones to monitor and prevent stubble burning in the state. With this step, stubble-burning cases have come down to 47 per cent as compared to the previous year. Now we are working to bring down the stubble burning cases to zero active fire incidents, he said, according to an official statement. Speaking about the startups in Haryana, he said that the state is becoming a hub for a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country. He said Haryana may be a small state geographically, but it contributes 6.5 per cent to the total GST revenue collected by the Union Government "which itself speaks about the industrial progress of the state". The Chief Secretary further said that the state government has offered both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for startup culture in the state. The state has productive manpower with 65 per cent of the population in the working age group of 15-59 years. He said that the state government is coming up with the Incubation Centre in the universities.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)