Department of telecommunications (DoT) will remain headless for the time being. The government has not appointed any full time secretary since J S Deepak was removed from the ministry about two-and-a-half months back.

On Wednesday, the government gave IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan as additional charge of DoT.

A notification to this effect was issued by the department of personnel, Wednesday, according to which Sundararajan will be at the helm of telecom ‘till further orders or appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier.’

Sundararajan, from the 1982 batch of Kerala cadre, will take on the role at a time when the debt-laden sector is going through hyper competition on tariffs that is hurting revenue and bottomlines due to entry of new entrant Reliance Jio, which has also triggered rapid consolidation.