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| The reason: Almost all the textile mills that had been functioning in Ahmedabad over the past five decades have shut down and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered the closure of the institution saying it was not registered as a co-operative bank.
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| Set up to handle accounts of mill workers and extend loans only to mill workers, the bank, set up on October 5, 1947, has been left with little work to do as only ten textile mills are now operational in Ahmedabad.
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| On February 6, 2002, the RBI issued a notice to the bank, asking it to shut down operations as it did not have a valid licence.
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| Since then, 27 employees of the bank still come and sit in the main branch opposite the GPO on Salapas Road in the Mirzapur area. The bank has a branch in the labour-dominated Khokhra area of the city which too has been closed since February, 2002.
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| Employees said ever since mills began shutting down in the mid 90s, the bank could not carry out any recovery of loans.
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| The maximum personal loan given to a textile worker was Rs 500. The maximum housing loan was Rs 10,000.
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| The bank had about 10,000 accounts and a deposit base of Rs 1.41 crore.
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| According to officials of the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, which ran the bank until it was shut down, the RBI issued a notice of closure to it because it had not made an application to be listed as a bank.
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| The sangh is a recognised trade union in Gujarat with a sizeable membership.
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| According to the sangh secretary Manhar Shukla, the RBI notice said it treated the bank only as a co-operative credit society and it did not submit necessary applications to become a co-operative bank.
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| Within three months of the RBI notice directing closure of the bank, all the depositors had got their money back, but the bank has yet not recovered the Rs 91 lakh that had been given in loans to textile workers.
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| The employees, however, said until February 2002, there was regular inspection of the bank every three years.
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