Two days after the Centre deferred the decision to hold the Census operations in Manipur, the state Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution, urging the Union Government to update the NRC before conducting Census.Meanwhile, for the first time since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur more than three years ago, two Kuki MLAs — Saikul MLA Kimneo Haokip Hangshing and Saitu MLA Haokholet Kipgen — attended the state Assembly session physically.Earlier, 14 civil society groups had approached the Manipur High Court, urging that NRC be updated first before holding any Census related work in the state.Subsequently after the High Court passed the order on August 31, a day before the Census was to begin in Manipur (on September 1), ordering its deferment and the Centre too followed suit. The Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution which read, “This House one again reaffirms its previous resolution passed on August 5, 2022 and March 1, 2024 and to urge the Government of India to update the NRC in Manipur before conducting census in the interest of the state in particular and the nation in general.”Meanwhile BJP’s North-East in-charge Sambit Patra on Wednesday welcomed the Centre’s decision to defer the 2027 census in Manipur, saying the move addresses a key demand raised by people in the state.Speaking to reporters in Imphal, Patra when asked about the decision on NRC, said, “the decision on NRC will be taken in due course of time at the Home Minister Amit Shah’s level.”Meanwhile for the first time since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur more than three years back, two Kuki MLAs on Wednesday attended the state assembly session physically.The two Kuki MLAs attended the assembly session, which began on Wednesday, despite an appeal by a Kuki civil society group urging the community MLAs to stay away from the session.The Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex Kuki civil body, had asked all 10 Kuki-Zo legislators not to attend the state assembly session.It had said that attending the sitting would signal normalcy despite the absence of a political settlement on the community’s demands.Despite the appeal, at least two Kuki MLAs have turned up at the Assembly in person.Since the onset of the conflict, Kuki MLAs have attended the Manipur legislative assembly sessions through virtual mode. Their physical presence in Imphal for the current session marks a departure from that practice.Meanwhile the state government said in the assembly that nearly 55 km of Manipur’s 398-km international border with Myanmar has been fenced, and the state government is targetting completion of the entire fencing project by 2028. Manipur Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam told the assembly, in response to a calling attention motion raised by Congress MLA K Ranjit Singh regarding a reported proposal for a “land swap” between India and Myanmar.On reports of a proposed land swap between India and Myanmar, Konthoujam said the state government had received no communication from the Ministry of External Affairs regarding any such proposal.