Govt has strengthened co-operatives - Premier

Businessmen or companies cannot be allowed to exploit the public, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka said Thursday.

"We have strengthened cooperatives that rendered a valuable service to the public then and now," he said.

Speaking at a function to open a cooperative filling station at Horana, the Prime Minister said all were equal before the law.

"Whether a person was rich or poor, law is applicable to all. Where law and order were not upheld such countries become barren like deserts as development could not take place in a state of lawlessness," he said.

"We are a country that strictly adhers to the policy of non-alignment and are a signatory to the Vienna convention. We do not want others to intervene or interfere in the internal affairs. In the Non-Aligned Movement's protocol we have undertaken strictly not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

"European nations have no right to interfere in our internal affairs just because we have not signed certain UN charters," the Premier said.

Prime Minister Wickramanayaka said the country had faced the problem of terrorism and other external problems that had an impact on the national economy.

"We are just coming out of that difficult era and some people have started talking about sugar prices the whole time now. But when the prices of certain essential goods were reduced, these people were silent," he said.

"One small industry, the local kassipu industry that was disrupting the well being of the society, had been affected by sugar prices," the Prime Minister said. "Therefore we should hold public awareness programs to educate the masses about this menace," he said..