LUCKNOW, Sept. 16 -- A newspaper on the table, a carrom game in progress, a table-tennis match underway and students huddled over a debate once made a rented room feel like an extension of Lucknow University. Its delegacy centres across the city gave students living outside hostels a place to meet, play, read and take part in university life. With most of these centres now non-functional or gone, students living away from the campus have lost the neighbourhood spaces that once brought sports, recreation and social interaction closer to them.

In Narhi, Nirala Nagar, Moti Nagar, Alambagh and other parts of Lucknow, the off-campus delegacies served as extensions of the university for students living in rented rooms or private accommodation....