Commercial transport services crippled in this hill state as taxi operators went on a three-day strike yesterday to protest against the proposed move of state government to hike taxes on commercial vehicles.
Joint Action Committee comprising of taxi, cab and truck operators union spokesman Jeet Ram claimed that the strike was complete as no private commercial vehicles had plied on local and long routes yesterday.
He said that the government was planning to increase road and commercial taxes by several times, which would affect their business.
The supply of milk, curd and bread was severely affected in the state capital as the commercial vehicles transporting dairy products from neighboring Punjab have also joined the strike.
More than 1.70 lakh of population of the towns consumes around 50,000 liters milk daily most of which was supplied by Punjab and Haryana bordering states through the commercial vehicles.
However, official sources said that government was open for talks to resolve the issue. Some of the taxi operators have not joined the strike but have kept their vehicles off the road to avoid any clash with the striking taxi operators.
Tourists in most of the towns were facing a lot of inconvenience following the strike since yesterday morning reports arriving from other parts of the state said. Manali, Dharamshala, Dalhousie and Shimla are most affected as most of the hospitality industries which are concentrated in these towns remained off the road yesterday.
