Patna: Beware of bankers. They can undermine even flagship schemes like the Prime Minister Employment Guarantee Programme (PMEGP) meant to foster entrepreneurship and employment.

Though bankers have earned infamy for giving loans to big industrialists and rich entrepreneurs without taking proper precautions and creating massive non-performing assets (NPAs), they can make a common man with dreams in his eyes run from pillar to post for a small loan and still not sanction it.

Bipin Kumar, 29, who runs a small mobile recharge shop in Patna City, thought of establishing a small iron works unit to manufacture grills. He applied to the PMEGP in August to seek a loan of Rs 25 lakh; Rs 12 lakh for capital expenditure and Rs 13 lakh for working capital. His entire family banks with Bank of India's Gulzarbagh branch so he chose it for his application, which is taken care of by the Union ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). The ministry forwarded his application to the bank branch concerned on December 1, 2017.

A hopeful Bipin then began doing the rounds of the branch. He would meet branch manager Brajesh Kumar, who, Bipin said, kept denying anything had come from PMEGP.

"I had all necessary documents, including my PAN and Aadhaar, Udyog Aadhaar, matriculation and caste certificates, electricity bills, agreement papers of the construction site. I visited the bank branch regularly, but Brajesh kept saying nothing had come from PMEGP," Bipin said. "He would tell me to take a loan of Rs 1 or 2 lakh and start something. A few months passed and I was losing hope, when, on February 19, I received a call from the PMEGP office asking me to report to the Khadi Village and Industries Commission and PNB Self Employment Training Institute in Patna on February 22 for a 10-day training. I had to report with a loan sanction letter from the bank. That was