Tourists, commuters and people in general had to face great hardship, and the supply of milk, bread and essential items was hit at many places as vehicles transporting these from neighbouring states also joined the strike.
"The strike is total and no taxi plied locally or on long routes," the president of the Joint Action Committee of all commercial vehicles operators' unions, Jeet Ram, claimed.
He said the state government's move to increase road tax, registration tax and other taxes manifolds was going to hit their business badly, and accused the Transport Minister of deliberately ignoring their suggestions during drafting of the policy document.
Sources said a section of the taxi operators did not join the strike, but kept their vehicles off the road to avoid any clash with the striking operators. Himachal Pradesh has more than one lakh commercial vehicles, including taxis, trucks, tempos, private buses and others.
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Meanwhile, Congress's state president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Transport Minister GS Bali to immediately intervene in the matter, and persuade the vehicle operators to end the strike.
Sukhu said the state government should immediately call a meeting with striking operators so that the common people did not face any inconvenience or hardship.
The government had only fixed the higher limit of tax in the amendment, the minister said, adding that they had not made any hike in the tax of any kind and tax on old rates were applicable.
The Transport Minister said that the unions did not make any enquiry from the Transport Department before starting the strike, and assured that the department was ready to hold negotiations on all the issues.