Although the Union Finance Minister in his 1999 budget speech declared the 1999-2000 as the year of the Gram Sabha, adequate efforts were not made to enforce the declaration excepting in a few states like West Bengal and Kerala. The culture of not holding GS meetings got wide currency because the elected bodies and officials wanted to implement various developmental programmes in secrecy. This article is based on experiences of nine GS meetings held in different blocks of the district of Sirsa during April-May 2007.