PATNA, April 12 -- In a step to prepare ground for the panchayat election in Bihar later this year, the State Election Commission (SEC) directed all district magistrates (DMs) on Friday to publish the form-1 pertaining to the population count and determination of boundaries for each panchayat area based on the 2011 census figures, officials said. The draft publication of form-1 in all districts, as per the SEC directive, would be done on April 27, with objections being invited between April 27 to May 11 and then disposal would be done from April 27 to May 14. The final publication of form-1 will be on May 25. The exercise will prepare a final list of people living in rural areas, or in each panchayat, including gram kachaharis (quasi-judicial bodies in rural areas), editing out people who have shifted to urban areas, said a concerned official. He added that the whole exercise would be digital -- a first time in Bihar. "This time, the form-1 exercise is important as the boundaries and population of rural local bodies have undergone changes in many places across the state because of upgradation of many rural local bodies into urban local bodies. The exercise has be done accurately and objections/claims regarding populations must be meticulously disposed of because people have shifted from rural to urban areas in many places. Omitting such people will help inform the accurate number of genuine voters in each panchayat area," said a senior SEC official familiar with the upcoming plan. He added that field officers will be deployed to conduct the exercise. The resulting dataset of the rural population would be the basis for reserving electoral seats for Other Backward Castes (OBCs), Extreme Backward Castes (EBCs), women, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system, the official added. The three-tier Panchayati Raj system consists of the Gram Panchayat (village level), Panchayat Samiti (intermediate/block level), and Zila Parishad (district level), aimed at rural development and grassroots democracy. In Bihar, the total number of posts in three-tier Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) stands at 245,000. Out of them 109,000 are gram panchayats, and an equal number is for gram kutchaharis. There are around 11,000 posts of members in 533 panchayat samitis and around 1,200 in district boards, which are apex institutions at the district level of PRIs. Once the publication of form-1 is complete, a survey would begin to ascertain the eligibility of groups deserving reservation in seats. The survey to be conducted by the Panchayati Raj system according to a senior SEC official, would determine the eligibility of groups based on their representation in a particular rural local body and other criteria, such as the triple test. Nabin Kumar Singh, Director of the Panchayati Raj department, said that the department would carry out the survey based on the guidelines to be issued by the SEC in coming months. "The exercise for publication of form-1 is rolling out. The survey would take place only after the final publication is done based on the SEC's directives. We will follow that," said Singh. Sources said the triple test survey may take place in June or July after the publication of the final draft of form-1 carrying details of population count of each panchayat body. The triple test is a door-to-door survey where political backwardness is ascertained for OBC classes through a three-pronged requirement to determine that a certain section of backward classes had low representation in rural and urban local bodies based on empirical data so that they could qualify for reservation. The last panchayat polls in Bihar were conducted in 2021. The last panchayat election in Bihar was held in 2021....