The Madras High Court on Tuesday called for a status report from the State government on steps taken by it to control overloading of government buses, private buses, autorickshaws and other vehicles. Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad ordered that the report should be filed by Monday.

The interim order was passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by 78-year-old M. Chellappan of Surampatti in Erode complaining about vehicles overloaded with passengers and driven in a rash and negligent way on the roads causing a nightmare to motorists and pedestrians on the roads.

Expressing his anguish over the government as well as private buses and mini buses plying in the city limits as well as the mofussil buses being overloaded with passengers who most of the times end up travelling on the foot boards, the petitioner said even autorickshaws end up carrying more than the permitted number of passengers.

Stating that overloading of vehicles leads to a dangerous situation with the driver of the vehicle concerned not being in a position to have a better view of the road, the petitioner said, it was one of the main reasons for increasing number of accidents. He claimed to have been representing this issue to the authorities concerned since 2012 but in vain.