Hyderabad boy picks up shovel, paves way for safer roads

It's a familiar story across Indian cities every monsoon — a heavy spell of rains leaves roads riddled with potholes, with many commuters losing their lives as a result. Now, a 12-year-old boy in Hyderabad has taken it upon himself to ensure that at least the people travelling on a main road in his city don't have to face a similar predicament this monsoon season.

What spurred Ravi Teja to pick up a shovel is an incident that involved a bike-born family meeting with an accident due to the potholes that scar the city, which led to the death of a six-year-old. Teja said: "Recently, a family travelling on a bike fell on the road due to a pothole. I don't want anyone to die this way, I will continue filling potholes."

And true to his word, the minor has embarked upon the painstaking task of smoothening the main road in the Habsiguda area, as is evident from photographs that have created a splash on social media, and which show the boy going about the job undeterred by the heat and traffic.

Of course, the job should rightfully be undertaken by the city's civic authorities and, hopefully, the incident will serve to leave them red-faced enough to ensure that no other innocent life is lost due to the shoddy road works that are a malaise across Indian cities.