Bhubaneswar, March 3: Pilgrims visiting the Jagannath temple in Puri continued to suffer as mahaprasad was not available for the second consecutive day today since servitors had stopped cooking it to protest against alleged police atrocities.

"I came all the way from Bihar to see the Lord. I was deprived of having the mahaprasad, which is a must for every devotee," said Sambhunath Pandey from Patna.

However, much to the relief of the pilgrims, the cooking of mahaprasad will resume from tomorrow keeping the larger interest in view. Suara and Mahasuara Niyog secretary Padmanabha Suara said: "We have decided to resume the cooking of mahaprasad from tomorrow, as thousands of pilgrims from outside the state are expected to throng the temple during the upcoming Dol purnima and Holi festival."

A temple official said preparation of kotha bhog (mahaprasad for the deities) was being carried out according to the temple rituals. Only the cooking of mahaprasad for public sale had been stopped.

"We have requested the temple administration to accommodate all the servitors selling mahaprasad at Ananda Bazar on the temple premises. The administration said they would make arrangement within five days and appealed to us to resume the cooking of mahaprasad for public sale. In view of the temple administration's assurance, we have decided to defer our agitation," Suara said.

Temple sources said the administration called a meeting among servitors to sort out the issue. Special officer-in-charge for supervision of the temple affairs Suresh Chandra Mohapatra requested the servitors to resume their service. "The channel of negotiation is open," said a senior temple official.

Members of Suara and Mahasuara Niyog, the association of servitors who cook the mahaprasad, alleged that the police had misbehaved with one of the servitors and arrested him when he was going towards Ananda Bazar on last Friday with the mahaprasad.