Chennai, April 5 (IANS): Normal life was affected in Tamil Nadu on Thursday due to a DMK-led shutdown strike over the Centre's failure to set up a Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

In Chennai, skeletal government buses were plying on the roads while autorickshaws stayed off.

But radio taxis were available.

Suburban and long distance train services were also being operated as usual, a Southern Railway official told IANS.

There were brief protests on the rail tracks in Salem and Tirunelvelli.

Members of the DMK including leader M.K. Stalin along with its allies gathered on the arterial Anna Salai here and protested against the setting up the CMB.

In Tirunelvelli, DMK cadres protested in front of a passenger train and but the police managed to disperse them.

In the hosiery town Tiruppur, units were shutdown in support of the strike.

However petrol bunks stayed open and milk supply was not affected.

As per reports reaching here, shops in Erode, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram downed their shutters.

In neighbouring Puducherry, transport services were affected while three buses belonging to Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation were damaged.

The Supreme Court on February 16 reduced Tamil Nadu's share of Cauvery water from 177.25 thousand million cubic feet (TMC), which was less than the 192 TMC allocated by a tribunal in 2007. Karnataka's share of water was increased by 14.75 TMC.

The Centre failed to set up the CMB within six weeks of the apex court's February 16 order. The deadline ended on March 29.