LAHORE: The 13th Lahore Inter-School and Colleges Games for Boys and Girls featuring 23 events, four events of every sport, has been announced to be held from Nov 3 to 7.

During a press conference, Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat said the decision of organising the event at the school and college level was a big step of the Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA) and it aimed to search sporting talent at the grassroots level.

The minister also announced a grant of Rs1 million from his own pocket for the award of prizes to the best players of each event. He also ensured that his department would extend full support to the PbOA to expand the scope ofthe games to the whole Punjab.

The minister said new grounds were being established at 1,000 schools and colleges of Punjab. He advised the PbOA to continue holdingtheeventeveryyear.

He said the youth of the country was the biggest asset, and the government had been focusing on upgrading the standards of education, especially skills and sports, for the youth.

Sharing details, PbOA President Aamir Jansaidthiseventatthe school and college levels had attracted the youth towards healthy activi-ties as many private and government schools and colleges developed sports infrastructure after the introduction of this sports gala, which was introduced in 2008.

The gala will feature athletics at the Punjab Stadium, badminton at the Punjab College of Commerce-8, basketball at the GCU for male and LCWU for female, cycling at the Cycling Velodrome, dodgeball at the Indoor Gymnasium of Sports Board Punjab, football at the Punjab University, handball at the LCWU (female) and DPS (male), hockey at the National Hockey Stadium, karate at the Elite Centre of Sports Board Punjab, kabaddi at the Punjab Stadium, kick-boxing at the Body Contact Hall at Sports Board Punjab, masswrestling at the Punjab Tennis Court of Sports Board Punjab, netball at the Lahore College University, towing Machine at the Punjab University and water at the Jalloo Park, squash at the Punjab Squash Complex, swimming at the Punjab I n t e r n a t i o n a 1 Swimming Complex, table tennis at the Indoor Gymnasium of Sports Board Punjab, taekwondo at the Indoor Gymnasium of Sports Board Punjab, tug of war at DPS (male) and Adbistan-e-Sofia (female), volleyball at GCU (male) and LCWU (female), weightlifting at the Weightlifting Club of Punjab Stadium, wrestling at the Punjab College Campus-8.