Uttar Pradesh is rolling out District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) across all 18 commissionerates of the state — and the first visible proof of that order is already on the ground in Gorakhpur, where a new centre has begun operations on the campus of Sitapur Eye Hospital. The Chief Minister's Office of Uttar Pradesh announced the move on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, quoting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directly.

What these centres actually do

A District Disability Rehabilitation Centre is a one-stop facility offering assessment, therapy, assistive devices, and counselling to persons with disabilities — mandated under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which significantly widened the legal framework for state-level rehabilitation. The centres operate under the central Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's DDRC scheme, meaning both state funds and central guidelines converge at each location.

The Gorakhpur launch — housed within the existing Sitapur Eye Hospital campus in eastern UP — is the kind of detail that matters: co-locating a disability rehabilitation centre with a specialised eye hospital creates a ready referral ecosystem for visually impaired persons seeking both clinical treatment and long-term support.

Gorakhpur first, seventeen more to follow

CM Yogi's statement, as quoted by his office, is pointed: 'Pradesh ki sabhi 18 commissionerion mein jila divyangta punarvasan kendra sanchaalit karne ke aadesh diye gaye hain' ('Orders have been issued to operate district disability rehabilitation centres in all 18 commissionerates of the state'). The phrasing signals an administrative directive already in motion, not a future promise. Gorakhpur's operational launch backs that up.

The remaining 17 divisions — spanning the state's western plains, the central Doab, and the eastern Purvanchal belt — are now on the implementation clock. How quickly each commissionerate operationalises its centre will be the true measure of rollout momentum.

The 'double engine' policy logic

CM Yogi framed the expansion explicitly within the 'double engine sarkar' narrative — the BJP's shorthand for a state and central government of the same party pulling welfare delivery in the same direction. In practice, it means the UP government is co-implementing a central DDRC scheme while amplifying coverage beyond what the scheme's baseline mandates. For persons with disabilities in a state of 240 million people, that alignment has direct administrative consequences: faster fund flow, fewer inter-departmental bottlenecks, and a single accountability chain.

Uttar Pradesh has incrementally expanded district-level disability services over the past several years, and this 18-division order represents the most systematised push yet — standardising access in a state where inter-district service gaps have historically been stark.