HYDERABAD, Aug 24: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture at a meeting held here on Sunday demanded that sugar mills be made operational from October 1.

It called upon the Sindh government to direct the mills to pay immediately dues of sugarcane growers, which amounted to billions of rupees.

It regretted that despite a government notification calling upon the sugar mills to pay the dues by August 15, but the mills ignored the notification, like other notifications.

It reminded the government that according to the notification if dues were not paid to growers by the mills by August 15, the mills would also have to pay 18 per cent mark-up.

It called upon commercial banks to emulate Zarai Taraqiati Bank and charge eight per cent mark-up on agricultural loans against 17 per cent which the private banks were charging presently.

The meeting was informed that names of farmers for special teams appointed by the Sindh chief minister to take action against the sellers of spurious fertilisers and pesticides had been forwarded to the government.

Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah presided over the meeting. Mir Murad Ali Talpur, Akhund Ghulam Mohammad Siddiqui, Anwar Bachani, Mohammad Khan Sarejo and others were present there.