Jetalpur: Speaking at the function to mark 100 years of Ahmedabad District Cooperative (ADC) Bank here, Cooperation Minister Amit Shah today revisited the past days when he was associated with the bank and recalled how the bank was once in very poor condition and on the verge of shutting down.

“25 years ago in the ADC election, you members elected me as Chairman, and the event in that connection was held on this same ground at Jetalpur. It was the 75th year of the bank, and the members then had doubts about how long the bank would survive. But I told them that the bank would celebrate its century and even its double century. The situation was that the bank’s share capital was washed away, and it entered into book loss. In the Daskroi mandli event, I had told the members that in one year we would make a profit and I would distribute dividends. Then Chairman Ramanlal told me that it would not be possible at all. But in just one year, the bank started making a profit, and we distributed dividends. ADC has not looked back after that. Now ADC Bank has reported Rs. 100 crore profit last year. Today the bank is at Zero NPA. It’s a matter of pride for all of us,” Shah said.

Shah said, “ADC is a big bank for small people. In its 100-year history, ADC has served lakhs of farmers and animal keepers through their five generations and brought prosperity to them. I remember properly that the bank had launched a scheme, as per my instructions, to give loans to women operating vegetable carts. A Rs. 50,000 loan was given to each of them. We also launched a Rs. 1 lakh loan scheme. And there was zero NPA when it came to the Rs. 1 lakh loan scheme, which was serving small common people.”

Shah admired ADC and said, “Out of 260 district cooperative banks across the country, ADC is the only one complying with the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines by implementing 100 percent e-banking.”

Shah said he had asked ADC Chairman Ajay Patel and the Board of Directors to increase the reach of the bank by offering seva to the people as part of the Shatabdi Varsh, to which the bank, during one year, organized blood donation, glass distribution, blood group identification, cataract, and other programs.

Shah said the 200-year function of ADC Bank in the future should also be held on the same ground where the function to mark 100 years was held today. DeshGujarat