KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has apprised the House of Representatives (HoR) of the achievements of his government in the last two years.

The meeting was presided over by the newly appointed Speaker of the House, Agni Prasad Sapkota.

Prime Minister Oli began his address by expressing condolence over the demise of National Assembly (NA) lawmaker Durga Prasad Upadhyaya, a Nepali Congress leader. The meeting, which was primarily scheduled for yesterday afternoon, had been rescheduled for today.

"Our federal democratic republic is taking shape," said the Prime Minister as he started sharing the undertakings and achievements of the government during the last two years of its tenure. "We've made our presence felt not only in national politics but also in major international forums, representing Nepal in arenas it had never found space before."

He focused on various aspects of development during his speech, including fiscal federalism, civil servants' adjustment, establishment of new laws and amendment of old ones, social security, media council bill, implementation of constitution, economic growth of the nation, poverty rate, employment opportunities, infrastructure development, among others.

An intriguing point listed by the PM as a solid achievement of the government was completion of two-year tenure, "The Nepal Communist Party has completed 731 days of governance which in itself is a rare feat given that Nepal has not seen such a stable government in years. For a government to reach the two-year milestone is an achievement," he said at the beginning of his speech.

He further went on to claim credit for Nepal's historic success in the recently held SAG Games. "Many sectors show signs of improvement when the government does well. The sports sector is doing great because of the improved situation of the country."

Oli then spent a major portion of his speech defending the controversial decisions of the government including the Guthi Bill, IT Bill, misuse of property by Nepal Trust, and the Lalita Niwas land grab scam. "The government has not shown favour or bias against anybody in this case. The responses to government's action in this case have been very interesting. People are making it look like I have personally benefited from that land."

In addition to talking about government undertakings, PM Oli also spoke on several relevant issues engaging the government in recent times. He claimed that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact programme would be endorsed soon and ultimately passed by the Parliament. Oli also talked about the longstanding Kalapani border issue. Addressing criticisms on government's incompetence to resolve the issue, he said, "Nepal will not let go of its rightful land. The government is trying its best to bring back its land through diplomatic discussions. We're working to bring back the land; redrawing the map is not a big deal at all."

However, the opposition, many members of the public and even some of the ruling party members do not agree with the government's countless claims of its success. They say, many days in the past two years were filled with needless drama because of the government’s, especially the PM’s, “authoritarian streak”. Read Rupak Sharma's report published on THT on why the government is not as successful as it thinks it is, here.

Full text of Prime Minister's speech in Nepali here.

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