The model code of conduct for the May panchayat polls will not hinder land acquisition for industry and other development projects, the state election commission said today. "Some district administrations had stopped land acquisition for industrial projects in view of the rural polls as they thought it would attract provisions of the poll code of conduct. But we have asked them to continue after examining the cases,' commission secretary S.N. Roy Choudhury said. "Ongoing development projects, like the ones for industry and drinking water supply, cannot be stopped for the polls,' he added, citing Sajjan Jindal's mega steel project in Salboni and the Howrah-Amta railways expansion project. The Opposition has demanded that land acquisition be stopped in view of farmers' discontent, expressed most strongly in Nandigram and Singur. With the Opposition cashing in on the land controversy in the run-up to the rural polls, CPM leaders in the districts favour a "go-slow' in the industry drive. Earlier this month, the CPM congress, too, had cautioned the party and the government against a land acquisition overdrive. The poll panel secretary admitted that there might have been "stray' incidents of intimidation by the CPM, which has so far won 2,857 seats uncontested, but denied a "large-scale terror campaign' as alleged by the Trinamul Congress. "We can't say that there was no incident of intimidation. But by and large, the situation has been peaceful so far,'' he said. Nevertheless, Roy Choudhury said, the commission wanted to deploy two armed guards at each polling booth in view of the "tension that is now common in every election'. Although the Centre has declined to send central forces for the panchayat polls, he said the state government had not informed the commission about the availability of police personnel. The Opposition parties could not field a single candidate from Khanakul, Arambag, Goghat, Garbeta and Kotulpur on the Hooghly-Bankura border, which have been witness to a long-standing turf war between the CPM and Trinamul.