Battling hard for recognition, Railways hijacked idea: innovator

The Hindu: Palakkad: Monday, 29 June 2015.

The response of Southern Railway to a Right to Information (RTI) query from a Palakkad-based innovator has come as a shocker to him. He was told that no records were available with Railways regarding a railway vigilance investigation into his claim about developing an anti-collusion device.

K.R. Sahadevan of Mankara, near here, says he developed the device in 1995. “I submitted the sketch, drawings, and related proof to Railways. In 1999, Railways announced that it had indigenously developed an anti-collision device. Then I began my legal battle,” he says.

Petition in High Court

Mr. Sahadevan says the vigilance investigation was launched after he filed a petition in the High Court that Southern Railway had hijacked his idea for an anti-collision device without acknowledging the developer. He says Railways sold the idea to various countries.

Last year, his RTI application was rejected, and he was told that documents were not available. Mr. Sahadevan then went on appeal, seeking to know whether the report was destroyed or could not be found.

Last week, Southern Railway Additional General Manager R. Venkata Swami, in his capacity as appellate authority, informed him that no such reports would be kept for more than 10 years by Railways.

“In the beginning, the Southern Railway officials in Palakkad and Chennai talked to me, and I presented all the details on how the device works. But they later started avoiding me,” he says. On two occasions, he says, the Railway officials called him over for meetings at its regional office. “Two years later, my device hit the headlines but the success was attributed to Southern Railway and a technology company with which it had links,” says Mr. Sahadevan.

In various fora

Mr. Sahadevan says he has been waging a lonely battle against Railways for long to claim recognition for the innovation.

“All these years, I tried everything from appealing to the President to protesting with my family in front of railway offices. But I am yet to receive justice.”

Mr. Sahadevan has written to Prime Minister and Union Railway raising the issue.

A school dropout, Mr. Sahadevan says he had also developed devices such as solar-cooled umbrella, self-cooling helmet, and wind-powered tower clock and they all have caught the attention of entrepreneurs.