AssamChief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on late Wednesday evening thanked PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, following Union Cabinet's decision of not disinvestingthe Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL).

The CM tweeted, "My heartfelt thanks to PM Shri @narendramodi Ji for once again keeping aspirations of Assam at the foremost." Terming NRL as the pride of Assam, he also thanked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Cabinet for retaining NRL with the government.

It may be mentioned here that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday evening has said that the cabinet approved the strategic disinvestment of oil refiner and retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), but NRL will be carved out before the stake sale and it will not be disinvested. The refinery will become a separate entity to be later hived off to another state-run firm.