Dharamshala, April 7 -- Several transport unions held a protest at various places in Himachal's Kangra district demanding a Automated Testing Station (ATS) in all tehsils of the district. The movement of private buses, taxis and other commercial vehicles came to a complete standstill in Kangra on Monday morning. The protest was held by private bus operators, truckers and taxi unions. Transporters allege that in Kangra district, the ATS has been set up at Ranital, which is too far for many operators. Some are required to travel long distances to reach the ATS , leading to a waste of both time and resources ATS a specialised facility that uses computerised mechanical equipment to evaluate vehicle fitness without human intervention. Varun Thakur, Kangra district president of the joint action committee of the All Himachal Taxi Association, said, "We are not against the establishment of ATS, but we demand that manual vehicle fitness tests continue as before until more ATS facilities are set up. A single ATS is not sufficient to cater to the commercial vehicles in the district." Protesting for immediate filling of backlog vacancies reserved for the visually impaired in government departments, the members of the Himachal Pradesh Blind and Visually Impaired Association were stopped by police on Monday while marching towards the chief minister's residence in Shimla. They have been staging a sit-in protest regarding its demands for the past 902 days. The protesters said that they wanted to march towards the CM's residence from Secretariat but were halted midway by a heavy police barricade. Speaking on the occasion, Rajesh Thakur, a leader of the association, alleged that despite repeated protests and demonstrations, including multiple gheraos of the state secretariat and the Vidhan Sabha, the government has failed to address their demands. Issuing a stern warning to the government, the protesters stated that if their demands are not met soon, they will be compelled to resort to a more aggressive form of agitation....