Benedict Jebakumar is an Indian Engineer who has spent five years of his life collecting nails from the roads of Bangalore.
Benedict Jebakumar, a citizen of Bangalore, noticed that he was getting the tire of his car punctured too often when driving on the outer Ring Road. Too many tire repair shops started opening up near the Ring Road and were always busy. With a little observation, he discovered that every time he got a flat tire, the reason were metal nails, spread there by the local puncture repair shops.
Reporting to local authorities did not seem to help, so he took the matter into his hands. He started collecting the nails on roads. He built a tool using a broken fishing rod with a magnet at the end to help collect the nails. To raise awareness he started a Facebook page called ‘My Road, My Responsibility.’
Jebakumar stopped driving his car and started riding a bike instead, for fear of getting flat tires. He now leaves his home at 7 in the morning, stops at multiple points by the Ring Road cleaning them free of nails. He does the same on his way back from office in the evening. Sometimes the nails are so much that after filling his bags with nails, he has to go back and get more bags. Having kept all the nails, he has collected since 2012; his collection now weighs 50 kg.
Benedict reports all of his activities on his page to raise awareness among people to stand up and complain to the authorities. Some arrests have been made due to complaints previously, but the culprits are soon released and along come the nails. He hopes that people realize their responsibility and take some action. The more complaints the authorities receive, the more likely they are to take the matter seriously.
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