LAHORE, Oct 18: A delegation of traders affected by the Ring Road project on Thursday called on Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and informed him about their problems.

The delegation headed by Mian Munir Ahmed told Pervaiz Elahi that the chief minister had promised that the affected people would be paid according to the market rate and shops and houses constructed 40 to 50 feet away from the road would not be demolished.

Contrary to this, they said, the Punjab government got 1,000 shops and 150 houses demolished as a result of which 500 families had been rendered without means to sustenance.

Trader Saeed Qadir Shaikh said the affected persons met the commissioner, the DCO and the chief secretary but to no avail.

He said they had been protesting for the last one month but the chief minister remained unmoved. They asked the deputy prime minister to help them out.