Bareilly: Power Grid Corporation of India has sent a letter to district magistrate VK Singh, requesting him to provide police protection to its teams while pruning trees coming in the way of the 400-KV Bareilly-Kashipur transmission line. The branches of the trees often cause tripping, Power Grid officials said.The district magistrate said the Power Grid would get police protection only after paying R 5,000 per tree to farmers as compensation before pruning a tree. Citing an Allahabad High Court order, Singh said farmers would have to be provided a compensation of Rs 5,000 per tree as this is what farmers of Rampur district have been given.Additional managing director of the Power Grid Mahesh Chandra Tiwari said in his letter that his staff was facing opposition from villagers in carrying out their work. He said on September 6 and 10, the Power Grid tripped resulting in interruption of power supply to Uttarakhand as the cables got entangled in the branches of trees.On his part, the DM said he would hold a meeting with Power Grid officials to ensure that farmers get compensation in compliance with the HC order. It may be noted that many of the trees are very old. Besides number of trees to be cut would also be taken up.The transmission line was drawn during the Samajwadi Party government from Bareilly to Kashipur via Rampur. At that time, the compensation for Bareilly farmers was fixed at Rs 200 per tree whereas farmers of Rampur were given Rs 5,000 per tree. After learning about the difference in compensation, Bareilly farmers had moved HC.In 2017, the court had ordered that the DM would decide on the matter of pruning trees. The then DM RV Singh had ordered that the compensation for Bareilly farmers be on a par with that of Rampur farmers. Following that, the Power Grid filed a writ in HC on which the court gave the judgment in favour of farmers.

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