New Delhi/Calcutta, Sept. 25: Mamata Banerjee today headed for a showdown with the Left Front government in Singur, but farmland acquisition for industry is such a complex issue that even the CPM does not present an unambiguous viewpoint.

During the ongoing central committee session in Delhi, politburo member Sitaram Yechury said: “We want the Centre to accept the Bengal SEZ (special economic zone) model.”

Fellow politburo member and Citu leader M.K. Pandhe wasn’t too sure. “We do not know if the Bengal model, which too has flaws, is the answer.”

While it is true that the Bengal model is a lot stricter on land use than the central regulation and its compensation for those who lose land a great deal more generous, there is no clear thinking yet as to how to solve the problem of finding employment. Farmers who sell land for industry also surrender their occupation.

Yechury, for instance, said: “The people displaced must be given employment in the manufacturing sector. He can open a chai shop.”

Which is what the Bengal government is also hoping for Singur as jobs in the Tata car factory are unlikely to be offered to local people for lack of skills. Industries minister Nirupam Sen has made that clear while keeping the “chai shop” option in rehabilitation plans.

Singur, where Mamata is now staging a siege and has started a hunger strike and threatened bandh, has prompted thoughts in the Bengal government about a national legislation on rehabilitation and compensation for the displaced.

Land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said: “The demand for a job for every land-loser family is just. But Bengal alone cannot implement the policy as it will provoke flight of investment from the state. We will ask the Centre to come out with a comprehensive law.”

The issue is likely to be discussed at the ongoing CPM central committee meeting.

Another confusion in the party relates to labour laws in SEZs. Investments flow to these zones a little more easily because they are free from the labour laws applied elsewhere.

The CPM’s central leadership firmly believes SEZs cannot be exempt from labour laws. Yechury and Pandhe agree that the SEZ act must be amended to include labour laws.

A section of the Bengal committee, however, wants SEZs to be rid of labour laws. Their argument is that nowhere in the world do they apply to SEZs, especially not in China.

The CPM also wants the SEZ act to lay down guidelines that will determine what kind of land can be taken to set them up — preferably, non-agricultural land or land where agricultural activities are the least.

After the Congress’s just-ended Nainital conference where strong reservations were expressed on SEZs, even by Sonia Gandhi, the Centre too has come round to this view.

“Wherever possible, SEZs should come up only on wasteland or on not very good farmland,” Union commerce minister Kamal Nath said.