He emphasised that banks should make the reverse mortgage loan more attractive by increasing the loan period from 20 years and enhancing the loan amount from Rs 1 crore.

Bansal said that proposals are being mooted for tie-ups with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to help senior citizens pay their installments under the scheme.

Bansal said that despite the benefits of the reverse mortgage, its should be the last option with the senior citizens, only after they realise that they would not get any support from their children.

S Sridhar, chairman of the National Housing Bank, which lanuched the scheme in the country two years ago, was also present on the occasion. After Delhi and Hyderabad, Chandigarh is the third city of the country to get a counselling centre for the loan.

As per the new scheme, senior citizens above the age of 60 years, who have their own self-occupied property, can avail of periodical payments from a lender (bank) against the mortgage of their house while continuing as owner of the house.

Since the borrowers are not required to service the loan during their lifetime, they do not make monthly repayments of the principal and interest to the lender.

The scheme, however, is in its nascent stage. N C Jain, Field General manager of the Punjab National Bank, Chandigarh revealed that so far only 19 persons have come forward from the region to avail the loans.

“While in India we have disbursed loans under the scheme to 113 persons (amounting to Rs 46.46 crore) , in Punjab and Haryana region, there have been only 19 senior citizens (amounting to Rs 7.5 crore only) who have come forward to avail loans under the reverse mortgage,” said Jain.