The toll in flood-related incidents in the Chambal-Gwalior region of Madhya Pradesh rose to 24 on Sunday, PTI reported, quoting the state’s Revenue Secretary Gyaneshwar Patil.

So far, 8,800 people stranded due to floods have been rescued by the central and state disaster relief teams, the Army and the Air Force. As many as 29,000 residents have been evacuated to safer places.

Nearly 1,250 villages in the districts of Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Sheopur, Datia, Ashoknagar, Bhind and Morena have been affected by the floods triggered by torrential rains over the past week.

Meanwhile, Sheopur District Collector Rakesh Srivastava and Superintendent of Police Sampat Upadhyay were transferred on Sunday after the locals affected by the floods staged a protest when Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar visited the area on Saturday, ANI reported.

On Saturday, when Tomar visited Karatia Bazaar in Sheopur city, which is part of Morena Lok Sabha constituency, represented by the minister, the locals shouted slogans against him suggesting he had arrived when it was too late. Some people also threw mud and small dry sticks at the vehicles in his convoy, eyewitnesses quoted by PTI said.

Forecasts from the weather department on Sunday afternoon showed red alerts for Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh and Bhind districts, while several others were under orange alerts. A red alert is issued to ask district authorities as a sign of “warning”, while orange asks them to stay “alert”.

Five units of the Army, as many as 29 teams of the State Disaster Response Fund and nine teams of the National Disaster Response Fund are currently engaged in rescue operations, according to PTI. However, Divisional Commissioner of Gwalior and Chambal Ashish Saxena told the news agency that there was no life threatening situation in the region.