Amid the nation-wide lockdown to prevent coronavirus spread, Kerala police on Saturday deployed drones at various places to monitor the unlawful assembly of people and to book those violating the curfew norms.

The law enforcers took the technical route after finding that a large number of people tend to come out without any valid reason, despite repeated warnings and restrictions.

Drones would help police get the latest updates about the violations and help them take speedy action, official sources said.

The state Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera launched the monitoring using drones at nearby coastal hamlet Poonthura, a police statement said. He said the drone monitoring would be held in all the 14 districts.

The DGP also directed his fellow policemen not to touch vehicles, individuals and documents during the inspection to avoid the threat of the virus spreading and ensure their safety, it said.

For this, gloves have been made mandatory for all policemen indulging in inspection, the statement added.

The state police chief also urged in the statement that residents associations should cooperate to arrange drinking water for police officials on duty in their areas.

In the wake of several complaints that a section of police officials have been blocking vehicles related to essential services, the state police chief said that people can inform such behaviours of officials at the police headquarters. The numbers to DGP’s control room have also been provided: 9497900999, 9497900286, 0471-2722500.

The incident of Kannur Superintendent of Police, Yatish Chandra, making people to do squats for coming out during lockdown, was criticised even by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Meanwhile police booked 1,220 people across the state on Saturday for violating lockdown orders. With this the total number of cases registered in the state following the lockdown for violating regulations, rose to 8,311. Police have seized a total of 792 vehicles for not abiding lockdown rules.

(With inputs from PTI)