With yet another World Environment Day just over, experts admit that though industrial pollution here requires immediate attention, the city is geared up to handle a Bhopal-type disaster. While some advocate a firm `no' to new chemical industries, others insist stricter checks on mushrooming chemical units.

According to Gujarat Ecology Commission chairman Hasmukh Shah and member secretary C J Jose, some select areas of the district have already reached a point where setting up of chemical industries must be ``avoided''. But, adds Shah, it is more important to see whether the existing industries were taking steps to avoid mishaps.

District Collector Anil Mukim and top authorities of the GPCB here are clear about the dire need to refuse permissions to new industries, specially chemical units. While GPCB officials claim that there has been a decrease in pollution because of recession, Mukim maintains that there is a need to repair the damage done to environment because of the existing units.

Various non-governmental organisations, which have been raising a hue and cry and have even moved courts against the haphazard industrialisation and the subsequent pollution of water, air and soil in the district, are more vocal in their protests.

Rohit Prajapati of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti says a simple no to new units alone will not help. But he believes there's an urgent need to relocate at least 20 per cent of the 200-odd chemical industries.

``One would have to go to Nandesari, Chhani, Savli, Padra and areas near the adjoining districts of Bharuch and Godhra to see the actual impact of pollution. Farmers there have begun to realise the effects of pollution of their lands'', Prajapati claims.

Citing a report of Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board of Fazalpur Rural Water Supply Scheme, which indicated that land and water in a 20-km radius around Vadodara has been affected by pollution, Prajapati points out the seriousness of the problem.

Even Society for Clean Environment president V V Modi opines no new chemical industries should be set up in the area. ``We already have so many problems due to damage caused by existing units and huge amounts have been spent to initiate measures; and the results haven't been very encouraging. Despite strict fiats by courts and checks by industries, the situation calls a no for new units'', he says and stresses on a more effective role to be played by the Gujarat Public Control Board.