WITHIN three months of having been declared “best state”, (during a much publicised visit by the home minister) the union territory of Puducherry found itself battling a sudden, serious outbreak of cholera, in its small enclave of Karaikal. It took the administration almost two months to wake up to the fact that this notifiable disease, one that has been largely eliminated, was actually spreading fast in the Karaikal region.Apparently, early reports of more than 30 people getting infected with cholera a couple of months back did not come to the attention of the administration.