Sacked Jet employees fail to meet Sheila Dikshit

New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) A group of Jet Airways employees, who are among the 1,900 the carrier has abruptly sacked, failed to meet Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Thursday in spite of after waiting hours at her residence.

The sacked employees went to the chief minister's house to air their grievances.

'They (sacked Jet employees) can meet the chief minister tomorrow,' said an official at Dikshit's residence, clearly indicating that the she was not inclined to get into the issue.

According to the official, about 55 retrenched Jet employees arrived at Dikshit's house around 4 p.m. The chief minister was not there at the time.

The former Jet employees reached the chief minister's residence after having held a demonstration at the airport here earlier in the day.

According to Udayan Banerjee, a commandant of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the demonstration was peaceful. CISF manages the security of the Delhi airport.

Meanwhile, in Chenai, around 450 sacked Jet employees held a demonstration to protest their sacking.

Hundreds of retrenched staff, including pilots, cabin crew and ground staff, held protests at the Jet Airways office in Mumbai Wednesday and even sought the intervention of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.

The airline has laid off around 1,900 employees following a strategic and operational alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines.