Bharat bandh: Commercial establishments shut in Himachal Pradesh

Commercial establishments were closed in parts of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday following the opposition sponsored nationwide shutdown.

State-run transport and private buses and trains were plying but trucks did not. Government offices and educational institutions were also functioning normally.

Most of the private hotels and shops were shut in the state as the trade unions participated in the shutdown.

The opposition parties are opposing the diesel price hike, cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders and allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail.

The impact of the shutdown was more in major towns like Shimla, Rampur, Theog, Solan, Mandi, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Dharamsala, Palampur and Kangra.

Shimla Beopar Mandal president Ramesh Sood said that there was complete shutdown in the town as the traders joined the protest against anti-people decisions of the central government.

"There is a complete shutdown in private hotels and shops in Shimla. Essential services like supply of milk, hospitals and chemist shops have been kept out of the shutdown," Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat member Tikender Panwar told IANS.

Cadres of the state's ruling BJP along with opposition parties enforced the shutdown in most districts of the state, forcing shops in most towns to down shutters.

So far there was no report of violence across the state, a police official said.