patna efforts of the bihar government appear to be paying off the banks earlier shy of advancing education loan have become generous nowaccording to latest data with the state finance department banks in bihar advanced education loans worth rs 470 crore to 20400 and odd students for admission to technical institutes in india and abroad this fiscal year till december 2008 by the time the financial year ends the number of beneficiaries may cross 25000 mark and the loan amount could reach around rs 550 crore said a senior finance department officialthat the scenario has bettered can be assessed from the fact that the banks during 200607 financed only 6328 students with about rs 174 crore in 200708 the loan amount increased to rs 281 crore for 10244 studentsthe banks have also doubled the number of loans given to students going abroad for studies in 200708 only 42 such students got loan as against 100 this fiscal year so farthe performance of some of the banks has been quite impressive state bank of india gave away over rs 170 crore to 8768 students this year so far as against about rs 755 crore to 2456 students during the financial year 200708 similarly allahabad bank which advanced about rs 18 crore to 731 beneficiaries in 200708 has during the current financial year already financed almost 3000 students with almost rs 57 crore even rural banks have been faring better the finance official saidthe feelgood change has come after a lot of persuasion and constant monitoring by the state government state finance officials said pointing out that petitions received at the janata ke darbar mein cm and the cell of deputy cm sushil kumar modi were forwarded to banks and pressure was applied on the banks not to ask for security for loans up to rs 4 lakhafter all this however we are still flooded with students petitions against banks alleging they were denied education loans on trivial grounds said the official