Bengaluru, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said nearly 80 per cent of farmers had consented to the proposed Greater Bengaluru township project at Bidadi near Ramanagara, and announced that compensation disbursal would begin in the first week of June.80 pc farmers back Greater Bengaluru township project: ShivakumarShivakumar also targeted Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy over his opposition to the project, claiming that the township proposal had originally been notified during Kumaraswamy's tenure as chief minister.He also said he was prepared for a public debate with the JD leader at any venue and time chosen by him."All the farmers had come regarding our Greater Bengaluru township issue. I have already made the announcement regarding compensation for them. More or less 80 per cent of the farmers came and gave their consent. They also urged us to release the compensation as early as possible," Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru Development portfolio, said.The deputy CM said final notifications for land acquisition would be issued village-wise and compensation payments would commence shortly."Within three days, the notification will be issued, and from the first week of June, we will begin releasing compensation to all of them," said Shivakumar, who represents Kanakapura in the Assembly.Claiming that the township proposal originated during Kumaraswamy's earlier tenure as chief minister, Shivakumar said: "This is not something I initiated. It had already been notified during Kumaraswamy's tenure. The project had been given to DLF. DLF later said it was not viable and withdrew from it."He said the area had subsequently been declared a "red zone", restricting private transactions, and that court orders had upheld the restrictions."Keeping all that in mind, I said today that this project should continue. We gained the confidence of the farmers and offered them slightly higher compensation," he said.Shivakumar said farmers had been advised against selling their land immediately, asserting that property values in the region would rise significantly once the township and related infrastructure projects were developed."I have also explained to them that since we are giving compensation to farmers, they should not rush to sell their lands because they do not yet understand the future value of this area," he said.The deputy CM said the proposed township would be connected through Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru-Mysuru Road and NICE Road, besides integration with the Satellite Town Ring Road ."We also want to connect this township through roads from Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru-Mysuru Road and NICE Road. STRR should also be linked. Nearly 40 kilometres of roads will be connected to this township," he said.Escalating his attack, Shivakumar urged Kumaraswamy, who handles the steel portfolio in the union government, to focus on reducing steel and cement prices instead of criticising the township project.Responding to allegations by opponents that the project amounted to a "real-estate mafia", Shivakumar accused previous governments of handing over the project to private entities."Who created the real-estate mafia? They were the ones who handed this over to DLF earlier. Let them come and debate. Whoever wants to come can come," he said.Kumaraswamy had accused the Karnataka government of turning the proposed township project into an "official real estate business" and demanded that the land acquisition process be stopped immediately.He was referring to the ₹18,133 crore Greater Bengaluru Integrated Suburban Project, which was approved in the April 30 Cabinet meeting.The project will cover about 7,481 acres across nine villages in Bengaluru South district and Ramanagara taluk.This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.