The Uttarakhand government has opened a liquor shop in a village in Pithoragarh where residents’ demand for tap water has fallen on deaf ears.

The residents of Berinag village took out protest marches on Thursday and Friday, banging utensils and accusing the Pushkar Singh Dhami government of “playing with the future of the place for a small gain”.

Village panchayat chief Hema Mahara, who also participated in the protest, said: “We have to walk 2km to the stream to fetch water. Our demand for tap water has been met with indifference. Villagers here have to store water in their houses every morning and use it for the rest of the day. On Wednesday, we found some people from outside the village celebrating the opening of a liquor shop here.”

Mahara said they were peace-loving people and didn’t want to fight with anybody.

“However, this liquor shop has deeply hurt us. We’ll not let it run here and spoil our children. The government can’t play with the future of the place for a small gain,” she said.

Berinag village — located 10km from Pithoragarh city — falls under Berinag municipality, a popular tourist destination known for the Berinag Devata temple and the locally grown tea.

“Successive governments have ignored our demand for drinking water, but those celebrating the opening of the liquor shop came here boasting about the development projects undertaken by the Dhami government. They asked villagers to consider it as a gift from the government,” said Alka Arya, a panchayat member. “We have written to the government to cancel the contract of the shop,” she added.

Former BJP MLA from the Gangolihat Assembly constituency in the district, Narayan Ram Arya, has backed the villagers. “The youths of Berinag are brilliant in studies. It is unfortunate that a liquor shop is running there. We will urge senior government officers to cancel the shop’s licence,” he said.