August 20, 1983

It was taking as long as a day for a motorist to make his way through the lines at the New York Parking Violations Bureau. For those who wanted to pay parking fines so they could register their cars, the bureau office was a confusing and frustrating place. That was before the Rhett brothers stepped in a year and a half ago and cut the wait to only a few minutes, according to the city's Department of Investigation. Posing as employees, the brothers collected the cash fines themselves - and pocketed the money, the authorities charged yesterday.

Brought to its knees by the first hurricane to strike directly at the downtown of a major American city in more than a decade, the city of Houston struggled today to regain its footing. Workers and residents worked feverishly to repair the damage inflicted by Hurricane Alicia, whose eye passed just to the west of downtown Houston Thursday morning. Glaziers and carpenters worked to fill thousands of windows that fell from six major buildings near the corner of Louisiana and Dallas Streets. Architects and builders were debating why some of Houston's dazzling glass towers lost their windows but others did not. Power was restored to most of the city, but nearly a third of a million people remained without electricity today, according to the Houston Lighting and Power Company. The company said it might take a week to restore service fully.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has approved a series of broad changes designed to restore basic clinic and emergency-room care as the major priority in municipal hospitals, city officials said yesterday. ''We are intent on restoring municipal control over municipal hospitals,'' the president of the hospitals agency, Stanley Brezenoff, said in an interview. ''We also are determined to save the municipal outpatient clinics from indifference or worse.'' The municipal hospital system has, in many ways, fallen under the influence of affiliated medical schools and teaching hospitals.

After the Berezhkovs arrived in Moscow, the Government issued a protest over the incident. Page 3. PARIS, Aug. 19 - ''Let's relax,'' Valentin M. Berezhkov said, to no one in particular. ''What a week.'' The Soviet diplomat loosened his tie, rolled up his sleeves and sighed. After asking a flight attendant for a drink - ''a Beefeater martini'' - he turned to a neighbor and said, ''We deserve a good drink.''

In a sign of its deepening military involvement in Chad, France announced today that it had appointed a brigadier general with experience in colonial wars and African trouble spots to command its troops in Chad. The appointment of the general, Jean Poli, a 54-year-old marine paratrooper, came amid reports that the Government was increasing its ground forces in Chad and was also considering sending combat aircraft. The Defense Ministry refused to comment on the reports, which were carried today by several French newspapers of differing political orientations. But, privately and guardedly, other Government sources confirmed them.