1.6 lakh deposited Rs 746-cr banned notes, says NABARD

Mumbai, Ahmedabad June 22: The National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) on Friday attributed the country’s highest deposits of Rs 745.59 crore in banned currencies at the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) to the latter’s massive size and performance. After a political storm over the IANS report on RTI revelations about ADCB, in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah is a director, the NABARD came out in strong defence of the Ahmedabad-based bank. “NABARD conducted 100 per cent verification in ADCB which revealed that the bank had complied with all the KYC guidelines of the RBI while accepting the demonetised notes,” it said in a statement here.

“During the period when the banks were permitted to accept deposits, 1.6 lakh customers of the bank deposite/exchanged the demonetised notes aggregating to Rs 746 crore, which was only about 15 percent of the total deposits of the bank,” NABARD said. Confirming the figure of deposits of the banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes worth Rs 745.59 crore, NABARD said the ADCB has 16 lakh accounts spread across 194 branches, making it Gujarat’s biggest DCCB. (IANS)