New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) slapped Rs 25 crore fine on the Delhi government for its failure to curb the menace of air pollution in the city. And this angered cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who hit out at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

On Monday, NGT asked the Delhi government to deposit Rs 25 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

A Bench headed by NCT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also asked the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government to furnish a performance guarantee of Rs 25 crore with the top pollution monitoring body to ensure that there is no further lapse in their attempt to curb air pollution problem.

“The Delhi government will forthwith deposit a sum of Rs 25 crore towards the cost of damage to the environment with the CPCB for restoration of the damage. We further direct that on failure to comply with this order, the Delhi government may be required to deposit at least Rs 10 crore per month till the order of this tribunal is fully executed,” the Bench said.

Gambhir, who lives in Delhi, took to Twitter to call Kejriwal a “fraud” and slammed him for “callousness”.

"छँटा धुआँ, निकला Muffler में लिपटा fraud! So @ArvindKejriwal @BJP4India Who’ll pay this fine? Of course me, the taxpayer. I wish I had the option of saying that my tax is not for Delhi CM’s callousness.Air pollution:NGT slaps Rs 25 crore fine on Delhi govt (sic)," the left-handed batsman tweeted to his 8 million-plus followers.

This is not the first time that Gambhir had critcised the AAP party over air pollution in Delhi.

Last month, he tweeted, "This marriage season we have a new accessory: Pollution Masks!!! Sadly, we could soon be buying matching pollution masks to go with our outfits. Depressing!!! (sic)."

Also when women's boxing world championships were held in Delhi, Gambhir said his "head hangs in shame" after seeing the athletes wearing masks and scarves.

"My head hangs in shame!!! But who cares? @AamAadmiParty @BJP4India (sic)," Gambhir had tweeted on November 13.

(With inputs from PTI)