06042021-TTB-01.qxd 4/5/2021 11:52 PM Page 1 13 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | vol.141 no.94 | 12 pages | ~5.00 | regd.no.chd/0006/2021-2023 established in 1881 NETANYAHU’S EX-ALLY NOMINATES SELF FOR PM POST WORLD /thetribunechd FACTORY OUTPUT SLOWS TO 7-MONTH LOW IN MARCH BUSINESS MARTYRS’ SACRIFICE WON’T GO IN VAIN: SHAH BACK PAGE /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com IN BRIEF PHASE III POLLING Hry arhtiyas oppose Section 144 DBT, warn of boycott imposed in all KARNAL: Arhtiyas have opposed direct benefit transfer (DBT) to farmers and threatened to boycott purchase of wheat if payment is not through them. INSIDE Missing commando hails from Jammu NEW DELHI: CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Minhas, who went missing after an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh, hails from Jammu. PAGE 9 K’taka CM gets SC relief in graft case NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Karnataka HC order that restored the decade-old “land de-notification corruption case” against CM BS Yediyurappa. — TNS WB segments Kolkata, April 5 Describing all 31 West Bengal Assembly constituencies where polls are to be held on Tuesday as “sensitive”, the Election Commission on Monday imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC, an official said. The order prohibits public gatherings in the constituencies spread over parts of three districts when the third phase of elections will be held. “It has been decided to impose Section 144 of the CrPC in all 16 Assembly segments in South 24 Parganas (Part II), seven in Howrah (Part I) and eight in Hooghly (Part 1) where polling will be held tomorrow,” the official said. — PTI Campaign for high-stake Himachal civic poll ends Shimla, April 5 The campaign for elections to the four Himachal municipal corporations ended on Monday. Stakes are high for both the BJP and Congress. The BJP seems comfortably placed in Mandi, has an edge in Solan, while in Dharamsala and Palampur, the scales seem to be evenly balanced. Polling will be held on April 7. Counting will be held on the same day. The elections are being held on party symbols. The stakes are high for Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur as these elections are being viewed a precursor to the Assembly elections due in November 2022. — TNS tuesday | 6 april 2021 New peak, PM calls CMs’ meet on Apr 8 Deshmukh quits 2nd wave Cases touch 1.04 lakh | Central teams for nine Pb districts NewDelhi, April 5 Worried over the mounting load of active Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalisation, PM Modi has called a meeting with CMs and LGs on April 8. The development comes as the country’s daily cases touched 1,03,558 today, the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Preparedness for the worst would be the focus of the meet as hospitals continue to see surge in admissions. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, UP Delhi, TN, MP , Punjab: 12.5 lakh doses | Haryana: 18 lakh A one-time injection of monoclonal antibody cocktail — casirivimab with imdevimab — administered within 96 hrs of detection of SARS-CoV-2 can cut infection length to a week, says an expert. INSIDE Amritsar cops distribute masks during an awareness drive. TRIBUNE PHOTO and Punjab are reporting 81.90 per cent of daily caseload. The Centre has deputed teams for Punjab’s nine worst-hit districts — Amritsar, Kapurthala, SAS Nagar, Rupnagar, Patiala, Row erupts as French media says ‘commission’ paid in Rafale deal Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 5 A French media report alleging suspicious payments to an Indian company for the Rs 59,000-crore deal under which New Delhi ordered 36 Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation reignited debate over the aircraft purchase back home with the opposition Congress demanding an independent probe and the ruling BJP dismissing the charges as “baseless.” The report, published by MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY COCKTAIL ~8 CR WORTH ‘GIFTS’ ■ Audit by French anti-graft agency reveals discrepancies ■ A combative Congress demands independent probe ■ BJP junks report as baseless news portal Mediapart.fr, alleged that the discrepancy was found during an audit of Dassault Aviation by French anti-corruption agency Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA). Dassault allegedly paid about one million euros (approx Rs 8 crore) to Defsys Solutions in India for making 50 models of the aircraft, which were to be given as “gifts to clients”. “The agency’s (AFA) inspectors found that Dassault had agreed to pay one million euros to a middleman just after the 2016 signing of the Rafale fighter jet deal. That middleman is now continued on page 9 after HC orders ‘extortion’ probe Tribune News Service Ludhiana, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar and Hoshiarpur. — TNS edit: Covid surge New Delhi, April 5 The 17-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra suffered a jolt on Monday with state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigning hours after the Bombay High Court ordered a preliminary CBI probe into the extortion allegations against him. LDH FACTORY ROOF MAHA GOVT, MINISTER TO MOVE SUPREME COURT HC TO EXAMINE HRY ‘FAILURE’ TO ENFORCE MASK NORM CAVES IN, 4 DEAD ■ Four persons killed and several injured as roof of an auto parts manufacturing unit collapses in Ludhiana on Monday ■ Unit owner, contractor booked ■ The Punjab CM has ordered a magisterial probe & announced ~2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased workers INSIDE Citing loss of moral right to continue, the NCP’s Deshmukh sent his resignation to CM Uddhav Thackeray while the BJP mounted pressure on the ruling Shiv Sena-NCPCongress alliance to resign on moral grounds. The Maharashtra Government and Deshmukh have, however, decided to move the Supreme Court against the HC orders. NCP chief Sharad Pawar approved Deshmukh’s move days after defending him and questioning the timing of former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh’s allegations of extortion against the minister. Singh had alleged that ANIL DESHMUKH CBI REPORT IN 15 DAYS A CBI team will reach Mumbai on Tuesday to begin a preliminary inquiry against Anil Deshmukh. Bombay HC wants the probe into the extortion charge conducted within 15 days CM SHOULD RESIGN ❝ Thackeray has forfeited moral authority to govern.Democracy is run by standards of probity and propriety. Ravi Shankar Prasad, UNION MINISTER Deshmukh asked cops, including the suspended Sachin Waze, to extort Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. The NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil, current Maharashtra Excise Minister, will replace Deshmukh.