Bhubaneswar, April 6: The Orissa government, which has drawn flak following rejection of a list of experts it had sent to the Supreme Court for inspection of the contentious Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, today claimed that it had not recommended any wrong name.

The names of the three experts submitted by the Orissa government included former Central Water Commission (CWC) chairman, Anil D. Mohile.

Subsequently, the Orissa government expressed its intention to withdraw Mohile’s name from its list. However, it could not give any convincing reason for this.

The apex court also rejected names of two other experts — M. Perumal from IIT, Roorkee, and Prof. A.K. Gusain from IIT, Delhi, — recommended by the Orissa government.

The issue was raised in the Assembly yesterday with the members of both the treasury and Opposition bench expressing their concern over the development. They claimed that Mohile was the CWC chairman, when it had accorded clearance to the Polavaram project. They wanted to know why the Orissa government did not verify the facts before sending names of the experts.

Making a suo motto statement in the House today, parliamentary affairs minister Raghunath Mohanty said: “It has been ascertained that Mohile was heading the Central Water Commission during 1998-2000. The commission had accorded its approval to the Polavaram project in 2009.”

“So it’s not true that the CWC approval had been granted to Polavaram project during his tenure,” said Mohanty.

The Orissa government had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the CWC approval and the environmental clearance accorded by the ministry of environment and forests.

Orissa has been opposing the project on the ground that it would flood areas downstream, whereas Andhra Pradesh has maintained that the flooding would be as per initial estimates that had been taken into account when the project was conceived and cleared.

On March 3, the apex court sought names of independent experts or organisation to inspect the site to verify their claims and counter-claims.

Complying with the court directive, the Orissa government submitted names of three experts on April 1. Later on April 4, the Andhra Pradesh government submitted its list.