Calcutta, Aug. 19: The CPM and its allies are not expecting a breakthrough at tomorrow’s talks between the Trinamul Congress and the government, but they hope it would be the first of a series of meetings.

The Left Front today stressed on “several rounds of dialogue” with the immediate objective of avoiding a collision with the Opposition over its planned siege of the Tata Motors plant site in Singur from August 24.

“The Left Front welcomed the chief minister’s invitation for talks and the Trinamul leader’s positive response. We feel the dialogue should continue for several rounds if the solution is not found in the first meeting,” CPM state secretary and front chairman Biman Bose said. “We appeal to the Opposition to put off their indefinite siege of the Tata Motors unit in Singur,’’ he added.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and industries minister Nirupam Sen made it clear at the meeting this morning that “work at the site will continue irrespective of the outcome of the talks”, the allies said.

However, the eagerness of the government and the CPM to arrive at a negotiated settlement was clear when Bose likened the dialogue with Pakistan and China over border disputes to the Singur talks. “If talks can be sustained even when there is no immediate breakthrough on international issues, why can’t it be done on an industrial project?”

Although “ready to listen to Mamata’s demands and arguments”, Bose iterated the government’s position that no portion of the acquired land could be returned to its original owners because of “practical and legal” hurdles. He urged Mamata to “offer a realistic solution”.

Bhattacharjee and Sen today presented before the allies a map of the acquired land that showed the plots of unwilling farmers were spread across the project site.

Sen justified the amount of land given to the Tatas by citing international standards in response to Mamata’s complaint that 600 acres were enough for a car plant.

Land, he said, was also needed for crash tests.

“Neither are the plots (of unwilling farmers) contiguous nor they would be cultivable anymore,’’ Bose said later.

He added that the actual amount of land belonging to farmers who are unwilling to accept the compensation offered by the government was much less than Mamata’s claim of 400 acres.

The chief minister, however, indicated to his allies that the government would try to placate Mamata by producing a “satisfactory compensation and rehabilitation package for the affected people in Singur and elsewhere”. “We are working on it,’’ he told the meeting.

According to Bose, the solution lies in “ensuring the livelihood of farm labourers and sharecroppers dependent on the land”.

The allies sounded convinced but declined to commit themselves to the CPM’s position. “We were told why the land couldn’t be returned. It would have been better had this explanation come a year ago,” said the RSP’s Kshiti Goswami.