Bulldozers of the district administration are once again moving into the Pachania grazing field at Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district after reports of fresh encroachment over a large area of government land. According to information received, a group of people had re-occupied around 533 bighas of the grazing land in recent weeks. Officials said that the encroachers were asked to vacate the area by November 30, but many structures were still standing. The administration has now started a fresh eviction exercise.
The Pachania grazing field is an old government land meant for cattle grazing, and it was cleared earlier this year through a peaceful eviction drive. The earlier eviction did not require the use of bulldozers or police force. Most families had left the place on their own after a public notice. The notice had been issued by the then Deputy Commissioner Nabadeep Pathak, who asked encroachers to leave the area by July 29. The deadline led to almost complete vacation of the land.
However, people in Jogighopa say that the situation slowly changed during the following months. They say that first one person returned, then a few others, and within a short time the entire area started looking like a new settlement. When the matter came to notice again, the grazing field had already turned into a cluster of houses spread across the 533-bigha area. 
On November 25, there were already reports that the land had become a full settlement again. Locals said that after the earlier eviction, the place was left open with no check. Within a short time, houses came up again, leading to the current fresh action. The matter has again started discussion on repeated land encroachment in Assam and the difficulty of protecting public land without regular monitoring.
The issue of evictions and re-encroachments is a matter that Assam has been dealing with for many years. There have been many eviction drives in different districts, and such actions often lead to strong reactions, especially when families live in such places for long periods. Officials say that even after eviction, a land can be occupied again unless continuous supervision is done. They also say that grazing lands and other government lands are meant for public use and need to be protected from fresh settlement.
Earlier this year, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had stated that more than 25,000 acres of government land had been cleared of encroachment across Assam in the last four years. But the Jogighopa development has again raised questions about how much of this cleared land remains free from occupation in the long term.
