Bengaluru: Around 22 lakh trucks have stayed off the road in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry opposing the hike in premium of third-party insurance for commercial vehicles, scrapping of 15-year-old vehicles, and collection of toll.

However, at a meeting held in Hyderabad on Monday afternoon, IRDAI reportedly refused to back down from its final offer of a 40% hike on third party insurance premiums, a cutback of 10% from the previously proposed 50% hike. The strike, which began six days ago in the southern States, has intensified due to which the supply of essential commodities like food grains, vegetables, LPG, petrol has been affected.