The Congress-led UPA government's $22 billion food subsidy plan can't tackle malnutrition because it doesn't provide the needy with proper, balanced and nutritious food, according to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh.

The union government last month announced the launch of its ambitious food subsidy plan by passing an ordinance. The National Food Security Ordinance, which brought it into law without any delay, aims to ensure the availability of cheap grain to 67 per cent of the country's total population.

Under the scheme, as many as 800 million people will get five kg of rice and wheat at subsidized rates every month. But, Chhattisgarh CM and senior BJP leader Raman Singh argued that the scheme can't fight back malnutrition because it doesn't ensure balanced diet to the poor.

Addressing a seminar on food security in Delhi, Singh said, "If you have to end malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality, you have to give proper, balanced and nutritious food."

Singh also claimed that the BJP government in Chhattisgarh had been ensuring nutritious diet to the poor by giving them eatables like pulses, chick pea and iodized salt.

India is the world's second-biggest producer of wheat and rice, every day, on an average, 3,000 children die of malnutrition-related illnesses.