Goa MLA moves privilege motion against RTI activist

Speaker calls for probe into ‘leak’ of starred Assembly question

PANAJI: A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA has filed a notice of privilege motion against RTI activist Kashinath Shetye, after the activist allegedly leaked a starred Legislative Assembly question on Facebook last week.

The monsoon session of the Assembly will begin on Tuesday.

Goa Legislature Secretary Nilkanth Subhedar said on Monday that MLA Nilesh Cabral’s complaint to his office had been forwarded to the Assembly’s Privileges Committee by the Speaker Pramod Sawant.

Mr. Sawant said that following a complaint from him, the Crime Branch of the Goa Police on Friday night registered an FIR against Mr. Shetye for allegedly stealing a starred question document and uploading it on social media before it could come up for discussion in the Assembly. The Chief Secretary has been asked to probe the leak, he said. “The report of the police department will be also be [sent to the] Privileges Committee,” he said.

Mr. Cabral told reporters that he would also file a notice of privilege motion against Facebook for publishing privileged information.

Mr. Shetye is a junior engineer with the State Electricity Department, and has till now filed several legal petitions in various courts and the National Green Tribunal over issues of corruption, poor governance and environmental violations over the years. On July 12, he had uploaded a photograph of Mr. Cabral’s legislative question, which is due to be answered in the Assembly during the monsoon session.

In the question, Mr. Cabral has asked, “whether the government is aware that one Kashinath Shetye working as a Junior Engineer in the Electricity Department is indulging in grave violation and serious abuse of conduct rules by filing cases in the High Court, National Green Tribunal and various courts and forums and working as a full-time activist, thereby not behaving like a government servant”.

Mr. Sawant said, “The question has been leaked by the Electricity Department or our office. We do not know who has leaked it. Mr. Shetye had posted the question on Facebook and has commented on our honourable MLA.”

Mr. Shetye told The Hindu that he had filed the petitions in the past, in his capacity as a private citizen. He said the Assembly question is an open document, and questions are sent to various departments, and this too was sent to his department. “I will explain that I got to know of it in my department and I did not go to get it at the Secretariat or anywhere. There is nothing confidential about it,” he said.