Udupi: The annual general body meeting (AGM) of the Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Sugar Factory located at Brahmavar in Udupi district was abruptly postponed after some members of the Udupi district Raitha Sangha barged into the meeting and created a rucks while it was under way at a private hotel in Brahmavar on Monday.

The sangha members alleged that some of them were not invited to the meeting and they did not get the meeting notice and there were irregularities in the sale of scrap materials of the factory.

Amid the ruckus, Bykady Suprasad Shetty, president of the factory, announced that the meeting had been postponed.

Later, H. N. Ramesh, who is the Managing Director of the factory and also the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Udupi, told reporters that the AGM will be rescheduled and held before September 25.

The sanhga alleged that there were huge irregularities in selling the scrap from the factory as the procedure of e-procurement was not followed while e-way bill, way-bridge receipts, gate pass from the factory have not been maintained.

Shetty, while speaking to presspersons, denied the allegation of irregularities in the sale of scrap materials and said that all due processes were followed.

He said that the protest during the meeting was politically motivated. Some of those who barged into the meeting were not members of the factory, he said, adding that some members raised the legal matter stating that there was no quorum and hence the meeting was postponed.

He said that there were 3,133 members in the factory. In all, 278 persons from the sangha had applied for membership last year. Of them, membership was issued to 163 persons. Notice regarding the AGM was not served to them as they have not completed one year of membership. Others were served notice.

Shetty said that the factory has been made debt free.

Earlier, former chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council and president of Udupi district Raitha Sangha K. Prathapchandra Shetty, who held a meeting of farmers at Amba Bhavan in Brahmavar, said that scrap items were not bifurcated though there were copper, brass, aluminium and iron which vary in their value.

All scrap items were sold as per the whims of the president and the Managing Director of the factory, he alleged.

This deal smacks of a huge corruption and it should be thoroughly investigated by the government, he said.

Shetty alleged that the scrap items were sold at a cost less than ₹30 per kg when compared to the amount mentioned in the tender agreement.